Aging

The importance of the theme aging is unquestionable. Anyone who has contemplated the age pyramids for the industrialized West or followed the discussions on care for the aging in the national and international media is well aware of the social and economic problems associated with aging. A demographic time bomb is ticking for those now living and for the generations to come. Nearly every professional field, including those connected with universities, will sooner or later have to deal with the problem of aging. In order to obtain an overview of recent developments, the Editors invited a number of highly qualified national and international scientists to report on their experiences in addressing many and different problems confronting our aging societies. One of the basic questions asked was how humans can age without significant impairment in mental, psychic and motor functions. The different issues were discussed under the light of possibilities for optimizing the quality of life for the elderly. Although it may fall short of covering the entire spectrum of practical and methodological problems associated with aging, the present volume considers a wide range of current problems. The anthropology of aging; the molecular biological mechanisms underlying the aging process, especially the chemistry of aging; the immunology and neuropathology of aging; and last but not least, the forensic aspects of aging. A central role has been assigned to the biological-medical and criminological aspects of aging. Most of the papers are based on presentations given on the occasion of the 1st Kiel-Lübeck Workshop of Legal Medicine in December 2000.