Perhaps it’s just a coincidence that I’ve just read the Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes – “how the Romantic Generation discovered the beauty and terror of science”, the sub title goes. Here we visit the labs and observatories of Banks, Davy and Herschel among others in the long 18th century in a very compelling well threaded and often humorous story.
Labs were where the discovery was at, the questioning, pushing out new boundaries of thought about everything from life on earth to life beyond. As per normal, I quickly leapt to thinking about our current “Age of Wonder” regards the concept of longevity, extended lifetimes and how we’re going to learn a lot of new things about life on earth and beyond.
Maybe the sub title to this should be – how the Boomer Generation discovered the beauty and terror of aging.
Yet it’s not just the Boomer generation in the new labs of this current age of wonder. I referred to U of T’s TAGlab and MIT’s Age Lab a few weeks ago and then right in my orbit of wonder, there’s the Sheridan Elder Research Centre in Oakville, Ontario with their tag line “From Lab to Life”.
No, these aren’t the lab concepts where scientists are squirreled away inventing the secret solution to life without end. These are the labs where innovations and new thinking is advancing the conversation on how we are going to live and adapt in a world where living longer lifetimes is the new discovery.