Chaos to Creation
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Professor Gordon Slater · MBBS, FRACS

Chaos to Creation

A work of science and argument about why we age — and whether the body's own repair systems can be persuaded to hold the line.

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Featured in National Law Review50+ publications, peer-reviewed
Order the bookfrom A$19.99Read an excerptMeet the author
Cover of Chaos to Creation: Longevity & Regeneration Frontiers, by Professor Gordon Slater
Plate IHardcover, 2026ISBN 9798255688227
01 · The question

Figure 1 · The question

The question that started everything.

Three decades of operating gives you a particular view of the body. You see, directly and repeatedly, what tissue does when it is damaged — and what it does when it repairs. The machinery is extraordinary, and for most of a life it simply works.

Then, in the same patient, it begins to falter. The question that follows a surgeon home is the one this book was written to answer: if the body can rebuild itself, why does it stop — and is that stopping negotiable?

On the Origin of Species asked how life began. This book takes up the question from the other end: not how life began, but where it is going, and whether its duration is fixed.

Read the full argument
Triple-stain immunofluorescence micrograph of endothelial cells: blue nuclei, green actin filaments, red mitochondria
Plate IIEndothelial cells · the machinery in question

Figure 2 · The nine hallmarks

Aging is not one process. It is nine.

Each is a distinct mechanism of decline, and each is now a target. The book takes them one at a time, and asks what current science can actually do about them.

  1. 01

    Genomic instability

    DNA accumulates damage faster than repair systems can clear it. The blueprint degrades, and every copy afterwards inherits the error.

  2. 02

    Telomere attrition

    The protective caps on chromosomes shorten with each division. When they run out, the cell stops dividing altogether.

  3. 03

    Epigenetic alterations

    The switches controlling which genes are read drift out of position. The instructions are intact; the reading of them is not.

  4. 04

    Loss of proteostasis

    Protein folding and disposal machinery falters, and misfolded proteins accumulate faster than the cell can clear them.

  5. 05

    Deregulated nutrient sensing

    The pathways that read energy availability lose calibration, and growth signalling continues when it should quieten.

  6. 06

    Mitochondrial dysfunction

    The cell's power plants lose efficiency, producing less energy and more reactive damage as a by-product.

  7. 07

    Cellular senescence

    Damaged cells stop dividing but refuse to die, lingering in tissue and emitting inflammatory signals to their neighbours.

  8. 08

    Stem cell exhaustion

    The reserve populations that replace worn tissue are depleted. Regenerative capacity falls away.

  9. 09

    Altered intercellular communication

    Signalling between cells becomes noisy and inflammatory, so coordinated repair gives way to chronic low-grade disorder.

The argument

Darwin asked how life began. This asks where it is going — and whether its duration is fixed.

Plate II, enlarged · Endothelial cells — nuclei, actin, mitochondria
Professor Gordon Slater, photographed in front of his framed qualifications
Plate IIIProf. Gordon Slater

Figure 3 · The author

Professor Gordon Slater

MBBS, FRACS · Orthopaedic surgeon, researcher, author

Amazon Best Seller

Amazon Best-Selling Author

Professor Gordon Slater is an internationally recognised orthopaedic surgeon specialising in foot and ankle surgery, a pioneer of minimally invasive technique, and a leading figure in regenerative medicine.

Professor Gordon Slater has spent more than three decades in medicine and surgery. A Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in orthopaedics since 1997 and Professor at the University of Technology Sydney, he has published over fifty research papers and holds multiple patents for medical devices. He is the founder of Integrant Pty Ltd. His work sits at the junction of clinical practice and regenerative science — which is the vantage point this book is written from.

FRACS (Orthopaedics)
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, since 1997
Professor
University of Technology Sydney
50+ publications
Peer-reviewed research
Founder
Integrant Pty Ltd
Full biographySurgical practice

Available now

Three editions.

Published 2026. Ordered through Amazon Australia.

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