1st Place; Immortality, Inc. by Alessandro Gandolfi

In the twenty-first century,” writes Yuval Noah Harari in Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, “humans are likely to make a serious bid for immortality […] A small but growing number of scientists and intellectuals have posited that the most important challenge facing modern science is to overcome death and achieve the promise of eternal youth”.

Can man really become immortal? Few truly believe it, and so research has focused on cryo-conservation, man-machine hybridisation and mind downloads instead. The majority of scientists agree, however, that average life spans will extend to up to 120 years of age and that our health will improve considerably, thanks in particular to the enormous progress being made in the sectors of bioengineering, nanomedicine, genetics and artificial intelligence. Research into longevity has already become a billion-dollar business.