Durk Pearson (born 1943 in Illinois) is a research scientist best known for coauthoring a series of books on

longevity The word " longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography. However, the term ''longevity'' is sometimes meant to refer only to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is always d ...

, beginning with '' Life Extension: A Practical Scientific Approach''.

Early life

While a student at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, he was a member of the

MIT Science Fiction Society The MIT Science Fiction Society (or MITSFS) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a student organization which maintains and administers a large publicly accessible library of science fiction, fantasy, and science fantasy books and magaz ...

and one of the writers for the early

underground comic Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...

''God Comics''. Pearson graduated from MIT with a triple major in physics, biology, and psychology.

Career

Pearson has patents in the area of oil shale and tar sands recovery, lasers, holography and supplement formulations. Pearson assisted with equipment design and experiments for NASA's Space Shuttle. Pearson is also an International Society for Testing and Failure Analysis honoree.

Publications

Pearson and Sandy Shaw are the authors of '' Life Extension: A Practical Scientific Approach'' (, Warner Books, 1982), ''The Life Extension Companion'' (Warner Books), ''The Life Extension Weight Loss Program'', and ''Freedom of Informed Choice: FDA v. Nutrient Supplements'', (Common Sense Press, 1993). He and Sandy Shaw have written numerous articles on

life extension Life extension is the concept of extending the human life expectancy, lifespan, either modestly through improvements in medicine or dramatically by increasing the maximum lifespan beyond its generally-settled oldest people, limit of 125 years. S ...

cognitive enhancement Neuroenhancement or cognitive enhancement refers to the targeted enhancement and extension of cognitive and affective abilities based on an understanding of their underlying neurobiology in healthy persons who do not have any mental illness. As su ...

anti-aging The anti-aging movement is a social movement devoted to eliminating or reversing aging, or reducing the effects of it. A substantial portion of the attention of the movement is on the possibilities for life extension, but there is also interest in ...

weight loss Weight loss, in the context of medicine, health, or physical fitness, refers to a reduction of the total body mass, by a mean loss of fluid, body fat (adipose tissue), or lean mass (namely bone mineral deposits, muscle, tendon, and other conn ...

, and other aspects of nutrition.

Television, film, and video

Pearson and Shaw wrote, designed the stunts, and acted as technical advisors for a 1978 episode of ''

The Wonderful World of Disney The Walt Disney Company has produced an anthology television series since 1954 under several titles and formats. The program's current title, ''The Wonderful World of Disney'', was used from 1969 to 1979 and again from 1991 to the present. The pr ...

'', called "Black Holes, Monsters That Eat Space and Time." They acted as scientific and technical advisors and received screen credits for the

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "''Doll ...

film ''

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and ...

''. They received screen credits for acting as technical advisors for

Douglas Trumbull Douglas Hunt Trumbull (; April 8, 1942 – February 7, 2022) was an American film director and innovative visual effects supervisor. He pioneered methods in special effects and created scenes for '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', ''Close Encounters o ...

's film '' Brainstorm'', starring

Natalie Wood Natalie Wood ( Zacharenko; July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American actress who began her career in film as a child and successfully transitioned to young adult roles. Wood started acting at age four and was given a co-starring r ...

. In 1988, Steve Sharon, Pearson, and Shaw wrote the thriller ''

The Dead Pool ''The Dead Pool'' is a 1988 American neo-noir vigilante action thriller film directed by Buddy Van Horn, written by Steve Sharon, and starring Clint Eastwood as Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan. It is the fifth and final film in the ''Dirty ...

,'' which was later sold to

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

and made into a

Dirty Harry ''Dirty Harry'' is a 1971 American neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates ...

film. Pearson and Shaw make a cameo appearance in the funeral scene. They are standing directly behind the bereaved.

Court case on dietary supplements

Pearson and Shaw in a civil action challenged the constitutional validity of several U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") regulations that require sellers of dietary supplements to obtain FDA authorization before labeling such supplements with "health claims." In ruling against the FDA, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found that the supplement health claims were constitutionally protected free speech."164 F. 3d 650 - Pearson v. E Shalala"
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearson, Durk American health and wellness writers Life extensionists Living people Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni 1943 births