DailyDirt: Who Wants To Live Forever
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Several discoveries in biology could lead to treatments that reverse the effects of aging and prolong lifespans. There isn’t quite a magic bullet, but it’s not unreasonable to think that people could live longer and longer lives. The Methuselah Foundation has several monetary prizes for researchers in the field of life extension interventions. Here are just a few other interesting research studies on aging.
- Little worms (Caenorhabditis elegans) on the International Space Station are actually living longer in a micro-gravity environment than their earth-bound relatives. Researchers have identified several genes that contribute to this unexpected lengthening of longevity, but living on a space station isn’t the fountain of youth. [url]
- The cost of sequencing the human genome has fallen dramatically from $3 billion for the first one… to a few thousand dollars. Having access to the information in our DNA could lead to lifespans of 150 years, but getting hit by a bus would still be a problem. [url]
- Certain kinds of exercise may extend your life more than others. Aerobic exercise is correlated with living a bit longer than non-aerobic exercise — so expect a few more infomercials to start plugging exercise equipment with claims of helping you live longer. [url]
- Senescent cells can no longer divide, and they might bring down neighboring cells and create various symptoms of aging. Eliminating these senescent cells could lead to more age-resistant organs — and people living longer (perhaps as undead zombies). [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.
Filed Under: aging, biology, biotech, exercise, human genome, immortality, life extension, lifespan, longevity, senescent cells
Companies: methuselah foundation
Comments on “DailyDirt: Who Wants To Live Forever”
150 yrs, is that it?
living to 150yo could be torture, depending on how healthy you are. who wants to be on a respirator for 50 yrs?
Re: 150 yrs, is that it?
On the up side, living for a 150+ years, you would only be a few decades closer to using a piece of art under copyright.
That is, if they don’t extend it a few more centuries. I hear Hollywood is immortal.
Resident Evil – Umbrella Corp. anyone?
“Little worms (Caenorhabditis elegans) on the International Space Station are actually living longer”
I, for one, fear our new wormy space overlords.
Re: Re:
Pixelation, Are you sure you don’t want to welcome our new wormy space overlords?
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000399.html
200 years would be great..
Living for 200 years would be great but only if the first 150 years is of youth. The rest 50 years is enough to live an old age.
globalists wetdream!
We live, we grow up, We change, we die (our physical body breaks).
If our physical bodies were immortal then living would be a prison for your soul and mind.
the 4th law of the universe is that Change is the constant of the universe!
Immortal physical bodies are soul prisons!
Re: globalists wetdream!
So if change is the constant of the universe, then the 4th law will change, right?
I’ll take whatever advances in medicine and anti-ageing tech we can discover. Extending human life-span is critical to solving some of our more pressing problems.