'Why We Die...': Noble laureate Venki Ramakrishnan to speak on his book in Mysuru

Most of Ramakrishnan's work has been on central problems in molecular biology, including how genetic information in our DNA is ‘read’ to make the proteins they specify.

Noble laureate and scientist Venki Ramakrishnan will speak on his book Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and Longevity in Mysuru, on Wednesday.

He will be in conversation with Mysuru-based writer and retired professor C Naganna and retired professor and scientist Mewa Singh at Vignyan Bhavan, in Manasagangotri, Mysuru, on January 8, at 6 pm. The book won the Atta Galatta Literary Award in the non-fiction category at the Bengaluru Literature Festival 2024.

Mysuru Literary Forum Charitable Trust and Mysuru Book Club 2015 are hosting the noble laureate, according to their chairperson Shubha Sanjay Urs.

Venki Ramakrishnan, who obtained a degree in Physics, left for the United States to pursue a PhD in Physics at the age of 19. But, his interests turned to Biology. He spent three decades in the USA, before moving to England in 1999 to work in the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. Most of his work has been on central problems in molecular biology, including how genetic information in our DNA is ‘read’ to make the proteins they specify.

For his work, he shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with Thomas A Steitz and Ada Yonath. From 2015 to 2020, Ramakrishnan was president of the Royal Society, when he developed an interest in broader issues such as science policy and public engagement.

Ramakrishnan has authored two books - Gene Machine (2018) and Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality (2024).