Roger Highfield
The quest for immortality probably began with the first flicker of human consciousness and was driven by the most primitive instinct of all, survival. Over the millennia, the answers have increasingly been sought not from religion but from human ingenuity, and as a result man's lifespan has grown significantly.
There have been many false starts. The book Tan chin yao chüeh (Great Secrets of Alchemy) by Sun Ssu-miao (AD 581 to sometime after 673) describes formulae to prolong life based on mercury, sulphur and arsenic. Several Chinese emperors probably died after being poisoned by these 'elixirs of life', according to the British historian of science,
Although immortality looks as remote today as it did thousands of years ago, we have made strides in prolonging life and in understanding why we age. The timing of our death is at least partly under genetic control, and insights into how we may delay it have involved the study of organisms, from fruit flies to worms and naked mole rats, to uncover the genes that influence lifespan and see how manipulating them may defer the effects of ageing.
Other research has focused on how to grow new cells and tissue to repair a decaying body. The key is to return an adult cell, say a skin cell, to its embryonic state, when it becomes a 'stem cell' with unlimited potential. A breakthrough in rejuvenating cells by genetic alterations earned
Stem cells have vast potential. In theory at least, they contain the genetic recipe and the biological know-how to become any cell, any tissue or any organ in the body. With the right biochemical signals, an embryonic stem cell could be coaxed into forming muscle, which could replace tissue damaged by a heart attack, or into heart vessels to replace those clogged by deposits, or into islet cells in the pancreas to treat diabetes, or into brain cells which could be used to treat Parkinson's disease. The stem cell is so versatile and potent that it could conceivably be used to grow an unlimited supply of body parts, whether bone, blood or brain, to repair the tatters of old age.
Researchers in
Meanwhile, we are beginning to obtain profound insights into the ageing process itself. One dates back more than 70 years, to when two British statisticians made a puzzling observation while studying mortality figures for women aged 93 and above. They expected to find that the death rate continued to rise with age, as it does throughout adult life. Instead, their data suggests that at around this age we stop getting sicker as we get older: women aged 99, they observed, were no more likely to die than those aged 93. They had discovered that ageing ceases at a certain point.
Further research showed that the cessation of ageing set in earlier among people who died before the spread of 'industrial foods', such as high-fructose corn syrup, compared to those have died more recently. This led Professor
Today, quality of life in old age is seen as more important than quantity. Professor
Today there is increasing emphasis placed on 'healthspan'. This is part of the redefinition of ageing: it is not how long you have been alive that counts but rather how many years you have left. This mirrors the common feeling that many nearing retirement age today are as vigorous as middle-aged people were a century ago. For example, the age of a woman who was 40 in 1900 is the same as the redefined or, as some researchers put it, the 'standardized average age' of a 55-year-old today. Intriguingly, by this kind of measure the average person can get 'younger' in the sense that they can have even more years to live as time goes on.
If we do significantly prolong life, new problems will emerge. Dr
- Ending War for All Children Everywhere
- The Path of Hubris and War
- The Lever of Social Action
- Tax Havens Under Attack
- How to Help The Poor in a Rich Man's World
- Bitcoin
- Global Domination and Databases
- Hague Tribunal Controversy Hints at US-Israeli Aims
- Pope Francis' First 100 Days Give Signs of Hope
- Sci-Fi Worthy of Malthus
- Should the United States Continue to be the Indispensable Nation?
- The Dilution of Journalism
- The Stagnant Mediterranean
- Anarchy and Hegemony
- The End of Youth
- Immortality: Holding Back the Years
- The Age of Aging
- Feel Like retiring? Forget It!
- Half-Baked Economic Theories Continue to Direct Global Economy
- Capitalism Is Not Dying
- When are Goals Ever Truly Realized in International Affairs?
- Beyond the Post-Cold War World
- Moscow - Beijing Ties: An Axis of Necessity
- UN Arms Treaty May Succeed Despite Iran, North Korea, Syria and NRA
- Grief Without Borders
- Elimination of Poverty Possible
- New Century is Off to a Wobbly Start
- Pope Francis Ties with Jews, Muslims Could Strengthen Vatican
- Pope Francis Staunch in Conservatism and in Defense of the Poor
- Bin Laden's Influence Lives on After Him
- Dam Construction Raising Regional Tensions
- Haiti's Man-Made Hell
- The World's Struggle to Kick the Habit
- United States and Israel Push The Boundaries of International Law
- Military Interventions Rarely Fulfill Their Goals
- Why Do Societies Give Up?
- War is Like Rust
- War's Lingering Phantoms
- Lasting Peace
- Controlling Lucifer
- United States to Join Global Race for Talent -- Big Time
(c)2013 Tribune Media Services, "Immortality: Holding Back the Years"