Warum wir sterben - Podiumsgespräch zur Buchpremiere

Nobel Prize winner Venki Ramakrishnan on the new science of ageing and the search for eternal life.

Venki Ramakrishnan - in English

We are experiencing a revolution in biology: immortality, once a faint hope, has never been so within our grasp. Venki Ramakrishnan reportson the latest breakthroughs in scientific research and forever changes our understanding of ageing, dying and death.

The knowledge of death is terrifying - so much so that we spend most of our lives repressing the thought of it. Our fear of dying has spawned religions, shaped philosophy and driven science forward. In the meantime, research has gained many new insights into our hitherto inevitable end and is aware of the incredible possibility that our death may not occur at all or may occur much later in our lives. At the premiere of his book "Warum wir sterben" (Klett-Cotta), Venki Ramakrishnan gives a captivating account of these insights and explains what death is, why it is the result of lengthy evolutionary processes and ultimately the price we pay for sex. Finally, he explains the extent to which our biology could adapt so that immortality is possible - and poses the weighty question of whether the price of immortality is not too high. An exciting journey through the chemistry of death.

Venkatraman "Venki" Ramakrishnan, born in 1952 in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, is an Indian-British-American ribosome researcher and structural biologist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009 and has been President of the Royal Society since December 1, 2015. He is one of the world's leading scientists in biochemistry.

Most of the event will be held in English.