DailyDirt: Who Wants To Live Forever

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Tue, Jul 31st 2012 5:00pm — Michael Ho

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.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: aging, biology, biotech, exercise, human genome, immortality, life extension, lifespan, longevity, senescent cells
Companies: methuselah foundation

9 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2012 @ 5:12pm

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?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2012 @ 6:49pm
  
  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.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Monkey (profile), 31 Jul 2012 @ 8:42pm

Eliminating these senescent cells could lead to more age-resistant organs -- and people living longer (perhaps as undead zombies).

Resident Evil - Umbrella Corp. anyone?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Pixelation, 31 Jul 2012 @ 10:55pm

"Little worms (Caenorhabditis elegans) on the International Space Station are actually living longer"

I, for one, fear our new wormy space overlords.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Michael Ho (profile), 1 Aug 2012 @ 11:19am
  
  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
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
PCCare247 (profile), 1 Aug 2012 @ 4:43am

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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
samuel_12, 1 Aug 2012 @ 6:15am

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!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 3 Aug 2012 @ 7:47pm
  
  Re: globalists wetdream!
  So if change is the constant of the universe, then the 4th law will change, right?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wolfy, 1 Aug 2012 @ 7:45am

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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]