Friday, November 18, 2005

Immortality

Here is some more news on the ainti-aging front. In short some Eggheads successfully knocked out a couple of genes in several batches of yeast cells. Instead of living one week they lived 6 weeks. So if it worked just as well for people then an average 72 years would turn into a 432 year life span. Of course the question is going to be if you can do it after birth. They tried knocking them out in mice but birth development was deffective without their presence. However it would be very interesting to see if they could x out the genes via a retro virus in a mature adult mouse and see if it had a similar effect. Then do the same to a mouse near the end of its life and see if it restores some vitality. Further trials with Mice (they also have the two genes) are planned and will take much longer as mice already live a couple years. So don't get your hopes up just yet for a shot from the fountain of youth..

If you have never tried to think out the implications of super longevity then you should. There are some serious rumbles comming from the the guys in lab coats that essentially translates to it is going to happen. Even the pessimistic think people being born now have a good chance of seeing 120 - 150 year life spans with a far more vigorus old age than typical now. The optimistic ones think such an improoved life span will see them through to more breakthroughs and thus keep them ahead of death, perhaps indeffinatly. The implications of that are simply mind boggling.

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