India, July 7 -- What made you write Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality? Why did the subject of longevity interest you?

I felt that the field itself was at a critical juncture, where a lot of advances have been made, but there is now a huge amount of money going into it. And it could go in directions that were not necessarily beneficial in many ways. The other thing that annoyed me about the field was that it was so full of hype. I thought that maybe somebody who doesn't have very much skin in the game could take a hard look at it. Of course, we are all growing old, so we all have some skin in the game in some sense. But I don't have financial skin in the game.

Your mention of financial skin in the game ...