The aim in this article is to explore conditions of possibility for giving life to science in the context of science being under siege from the twin agendas of industrialization and managerialization. The focus of this exploration is my experiencing a shift from being brought in as an ally in the strategic conduct of others to then becoming engaged in the life sciences of ageing. In nuancing these different ways of ‘being alongside’, I show how social and life scientists’ attachment and detachment to things can bring them into intimate entanglement with each other’s world-making. Keeping in view possibilities for breaching the dividing practices by which each of us are emplaced, I focus on gatherings that give science life and so get beyond things as ‘ as others want them’.