It is probably impossible to find a person who at least once, and most often more than once, asked himself the question: why can’t we live forever? People have been searching for the elixir of eternal youth for centuries. All of Europe in the Middle Ages was looking for the philosopher's stone, which was capable of not only turning metals into gold, but also prolonging life and restoring youth.

The most noticeable trace in the search for the elixir of eternal youth was left by Juan Ponce de Leon, Spanish conquistador and governor of San Juan Island, who lived in the 15th–16th centuries. Then the elixir of youth was represented as living water, legends about which can be found back in antiquity. Suffice it to recall Herodotus, who wrote about the Ethiopians who lived for 120 years. When the Persian ambassadors were surprised by their longevity, they took the Persians to a source of “living water,” in which constant bathing prolonged life.

Ponce de Leon sought eternal youth in the Bahamas. There, on the island of Bimini, according to Indian legends, there was a source of living water, a bath in which granted eternal youth.

Of course, Ponce de Leon did not find the living water that he was supposed to bring to the court of the Spanish King Ferdinand. However, the expedition was not in vain - he discovered Florida.

The story of the search for eternal youth in the Bahamas had a very recent continuation. A few years ago, a famous illusionist David Copperfield bought four islands in the south of the Bahamas archipelago, in the Egzuma ridge, for $50 million. On which of them he found “living” water, which, according to him, literally revives dried leaves and plants and almost dead insects, is not reported.

Copperfield invited scientists who had to figure out whether the miraculous effect of water also applies to people. Apparently, the water only revived the dried leaves, because there were no reports of the construction of a resort for those wishing to rejuvenate.

Reproduction is more important

What prevents humanity from living forever? Many people believe that the environment is preventing us from becoming immortal. Others sin on food and water. In fact, the reason is in ourselves. Our own body does not allow us to live forever.

The lifespan of any living organism is determined by the amount of energy allocated to two main processes: life activity and reproduction (reproduction). If all or most of it were spent on ensuring vital functions, then we would live much longer. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), we must grow up and reproduce.

In any case, we live much longer than our ancestors. Among cave dwellers, 30-year-olds were considered long-livers. The average life expectancy in the United States just 100 years ago was only 53 years. One in four children did not live to see their fifth birthday, and tens of thousands of women died due to complications during childbirth.

Today, thanks to healthcare, life expectancy has increased to 78.1 years. In Japan, the average life expectancy of women is 85.6 years, and in some African countries where AIDS is rampant, it is no more than 30.

Functional machine

French woman named Zhanna Kalman is considered the oldest inhabitant of the Earth among those whose dates of birth are precisely known. She lived 122 years and 164 days. Scientists believe that this is the limit for humans.

Why can't we all live that long? Here, too, everything is extremely simple. In general, all organisms consist of two types of cells: non-producing and producing. Non-producing cells are the cells of the eyes, skin, muscles, bones, etc. Reproducing cells are the cells of sperm and eggs. Any living organism faces a constant task - to survive. Radioactivity, chemicals, free radicals, harmful bacteria and viruses attack our cells 24 hours a day. During the day, thousands of cells cannot withstand such a life. This “environment” also negatively affects DNA, which changes or mutates. Our body gradually replaces damaged cells through continuous reproduction. This process requires a lot of energy. However, the amount of energy is limited; it must be divided between life activity and reproduction.

In the process of evolution, all living organisms on our planet began to spend O Most of the energy is used to support reproductive cells.

Aging occurs because our body constantly must maintain a balance between reproduction and maintenance of the body in a normal state. There is not enough energy for both processes. B O Most of it goes to the reproduction and protection of reproducing cells, and the rest is used to support non-reproducing cells. As a result, damage accumulates in cells over time, which causes organ diseases.

“The human body is a machine that performs a number of functions,” says Aubrey de Gray, one of the authoritative experts in the field of life extension, - and, like any normally functioning mechanism, it accumulates various damages. Therefore, in principle, damage should be repaired periodically.”

In addition to this, severely damaged cells or those cells that can no longer divide commit suicide (apoptosis).

The body thinks something like this: why waste precious energy on cell repair? Our body is waste material that can be donated. Genes from our reproductive cells will live in our offspring.

Multi-headed hydra

The main factors influencing life expectancy are genetics and metabolism. A few people live to be 100 years or more thanks to special genes that control the aging process. Metabolism in mice is much higher than in turtles. That's why mice live only three years, while turtles live up to 150 years. Therefore, a mouse must begin to reproduce as early as possible, but for turtles this takes a century.

The lifespan of some organisms can be changed by changing their metabolic rate. Mice's metabolism slows down in an environment where food is scarce. If people eat less, it will slow down their metabolism very slightly and increase life expectancy, because our metabolism is already low. On the one hand, for significant changes a person needs to reduce energy consumption by 30–50%, on the other hand, reducing the number of calories by more than 50% will significantly shorten our life.

There are rare living organisms that live forever. For example, jellyfish and hydra have reproductive cells throughout their bodies. All their energy goes into supporting and repairing these particular cells. A hydra can be cut into one hundred pieces, and each one will grow into a new hydra.

A complex and delicate matter

Aging is the process of accumulation of damage to macromolecules, cells, tissues and organs. This process is very complex. Everything is confusing, even the terminology, not to mention the processes themselves. For example, rejuvenation is not the same thing as increasing life expectancy. The first can be considered a 180-degree turn in aging. It involves repairing damage caused by aging and replacing damaged tissue. The second deals with the causes of aging and the fight against them. Rejuvenation can lead to increased lifespan, but when lifespan increases, rejuvenation is rarely used.

Scientists have now identified at least eight important hormones that slow down aging. These are human growth hormones (HGH), sex hormones: testosterone and estrogen, erythropoietin, insulin, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), melatonin, thyroid and pregnenolone. Theoretically, if you replace at least part of these hormones, you can achieve a rejuvenation effect.

B O Most attempts at genetic repair have traditionally involved the use of retroviruses, which insert a new gene anywhere on a chromosome.

Old age is a disease like all other diseases. And diseases are treated.

Distant future

Speaking about the search for the elixir of eternal youth and immortality in our days, it should be remembered that, despite talk of numerous high-profile discoveries and breakthroughs (according to the scientists and journalists who made them), the work is at a very early stage, in its infancy, and that the first Medicines that can prolong a person’s life or specifically fight old age are unlikely to appear in this, or even the next decade.

For example, a lady Linda Patridge, who leads researchers from College London and the Institute of Biological Aging in Cologne, one of the most respected specialists in the field of gerontology, believes that the first drugs will not appear until 2020. Moreover, they will not be the elixir of eternal youth or immortality. They will treat and prevent diseases associated with old age, and thus prolong life. We are not talking about immortality, but about increasing life expectancy and extending the active age to very deep gray hairs.

Telomerase mice

Despite the fact that it is a long time to wait for the appearance of drugs for old age, there are already some successes.

One of the causes of physical degeneration associated with aging is telomeres, the pieces of DNA at the ends of chromosomes. With each cell division they shorten. Once the telomeres disappear, the cell stops dividing and dies.

The enzyme telomerase reverses this process. In November 2010, the journal Nature reported that Harvard Medical School scientists injected telomerase into a group of mice suffering from age-related degeneration. The damage has disappeared. The mice not only began to feel better, but also looked younger.

This is not the first time that scientists have turned to telomerase, but previously all experiments were carried out on simple organisms. Merit of the professor Ronald Depinho in that he was the first to show its capabilities in increasing life expectancy for complex mammals.

Two months after the introduction of telomerase, the brain volume of experimental elderly mice, whose internal organs corresponded to 80 years in our language, returned to normal. Even more surprising was the return of the almost completely lost reproductive ability of rodents, which began to produce large litters. And this is not to mention the fact that mice receiving telomerase lived longer than their relatives who did not receive this enzyme.

Random discoveries

Most of the drugs that have at least some relation to the problem of prolonging life were originally intended for completely different purposes. You don't have to look far for examples. Three months ago, NASA scientists announced the accidental discovery of the elixir of youth.

We are talking about a drink for astronauts - AS10, which, in addition to protecting against radiation, can fight some signs of aging.

At the beginning of the experiment on humans at the University of Utah, pictures of the skin of 180 volunteers were taken using the Visia device, which allows one to “look” under the skin of a person. They then took AS10 twice daily for four months. At the end of the experiment, it turned out that ultraviolet spots were reduced by 30% and wrinkles by 17%.

AS10 is a food supplement based on a mixture of cupaucu, acai, acerola cherry, prickly pear and yumberry juices. In addition to them, the preparation includes grapes, green tea, pomegranate and vegetables.

They claim to have found a way to slow down the aging of individual cells, and Durham University scientists led by Chris Hutchinson. The professor developed a medicine that slowed down the aging of cells taken from children with progeria. This is a rare genetic disease in which cells age eight to ten times faster. As a result, patients quickly become old and die between the ages of eight and 21.

By the way, it is believed that the basis of the successfully filmed story of the American writer Scott Fitzgerald“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” lies precisely in progeria.

The discovery of British scientists is based on a medicine used to treat not aging, but infectious diseases accompanied by increased viscosity of sputum, as well as otitis, rhinitis and sinusitis. Professor Hutchinson found that acetylcysteine ​​(ACC) can also slow down the aging process of cells. He believes that in the future, a medicine based on ACC will significantly alleviate the suffering of progeria patients and, possibly, help them live longer.

Exactly one year ago, scientists from Harvard Medical School discovered the elixir of youth on Easter Island. It is from the bacteria Streptomyces hygroscopicus from the family Streptomycetes, found on this Chilean island, that rapamycin, an effective drug against progeria, is made.

As usual, the antiaging properties of rapamycin were discovered by accident. It turned out that rapamycin not only weakens the body's rejection of foreign organs during transplantation, but also suppresses the activity of damaged proteins that lead to aging. All cells that received rapamycin increased their lifespan.

Rapamycin successfully fights another important factor in aging - the ability of cells to remove waste, which weakens over time. After treatment with this drug, the cells got rid of waste products much more energetically.

A growth hormone

Many gerontologists consider human growth hormone (HGH) to be the elixir of youth. It has become the latest fashion in Hollywood, where the largest percentage of people dream of eternal youth. People familiar with the Dream Factory claim that any actor, producer, cameraman, etc. who is over 50 and has very developed muscles is taking HGH. Injections of this hormone do not hide Sylvester Stallone, Nick Nolte And Oliver Stone.

Doctors consider HGH, which is produced by the pituitary gland, to be one of the most important hormones in the human body. The blood carries it to almost all organs. It is responsible for processes related to strength and growth, the formation of proteins and the repair of damaged tissue.

As we age, the pituitary gland produces less and less HGH. It is believed that between 40 and 60 years its volume decreases by a quarter. Scientists believe that a decrease in HGH is one of the reasons for the aging of the body.

In the first half of the last century, scientists used rBGH, a bovine growth hormone, which was purified and given to patients with type 1 diabetes and children with growth hormone deficiencies.

Physicians at Tufts University began extracting HGH from cadavers in 1958. Every year the number of patients he helped grew.

In 1981, the American pharmaceutical company Genentech released the first synthetic version of human growth hormone. The medicine is sold only by prescription and is prescribed to patients with growth hormone deficiency, but not due to old age, but to other reasons. In adults, by the way, unlike children, deficiency of this hormone, most often associated with pituitary adenoma, is extremely rare.

Elixir of youth from Belarus

Scientists from Belarus, working together with American colleagues, also claim to have found the elixir of youth. They noticed that polyunsaturated fatty acids carry free radicals that destroy DNA and cause aging, and replaced the hydrogen atoms with a harmless isotope of deuterium. Experiments on bacteria were successful. Experiments on long-suffering mice are now in full swing. If they give a positive result, then in 10 years we can expect the Belarusian elixir of youth to appear in stores.

Rafael de Cabo from the National Institute on Aging believes that the life of obese mice can be extended with the help of the drug SRT-1720, which reduces the amount of fat in the liver and improves insulin sensitivity. These and other advantages allowed the experimental mice to live an average of 44% longer than obese rodents that did not receive the drug. Even more promising, according to Cabo, is the SRT-2104.

Man is not eternal. His life has a natural limit. According to the findings of American scientists released in early October, which were made as a result of an analysis of basic demographic indicators for more than 40 countries, the likelihood that human life expectancy will ever exceed 125 years is extremely low. However, specialists at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock have a different opinion.

Upper limit

“Even the countries with the lowest mortality and the highest life expectancy are still far from the upper limit to growth - if such a limit exists at all,” emphasizes Vladimir Shkolnikov, head of the demographic data laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, in a conversation with Deutsche Welle.

At the same time, the demographer scientist refers to the results of a study conducted back in 2002 by the director of the institute, James Vopel, together with the prominent British demographer Jim Eppen. These researchers collected all existing statistics on life expectancy in countries where the birth and death of citizens were registered. And when they made a graph based on the collected data, they made an amazing discovery. “It turned out that, starting from the middle of the 19th century, maximum life expectancy (LE) increased constantly and linearly - by approximately three months per calendar year. But the most interesting thing is that there were no signs of slowdown in the growth of life expectancy. In other words, the upper limit of growth is still far away,” says Vladimir Shkolnikov.

Moreover, this trend is observed in most countries of the world. For example, if people born in 1900 in France had an average life expectancy of just over 45 years, then the average person born in 2000 would presumably be over 75 years old. The country with the longest life expectancy today is Japan. Thus, for women living in this country, the probability of living to 80 years today is 80 percent, and to 100 years - 7.2 percent, the scientist gives an example.

Jeanne Kalman's recipe for longevity

In just a century, life expectancy has increased by as much as three decades. Moreover, as Vladimir Shkolnikov notes, in fairly large population groups within individual countries (for example, people with higher education or married) even lower mortality rates have been achieved. “Scientific and technological progress, medical advances in the fight against cardiovascular and other chronic diseases, a reduction in the number of smokers, an increase in the level of education and well-being of the population have a positive impact here,” explains Vladimir Shkolnikov.

The oldest person who has ever lived on Earth whose dates of birth and death are documented is the Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment. She was born in 1875 and died in 1997 at the age of 122, and until the end of her days she retained a clear memory and mind. By the way, she was an avid smoker, convinced that smoking within reasonable limits does not harm the body. And she considered the secret of her active longevity to be the consumption of large amounts of garlic, olive oil and port wine, moderate sex and sufficient sleep.

Universal recipe

Context

Immortality by 2045: the crazy project of a Russian billionaire

Atlantico 08/02/2012

Thanks to the Siberian camps for longevity

JB Press 08/07/2015

Plans for eternity

Financial Times 09.29.2013

Education = health + longevity

La Vanguardia 09/23/2012 Perhaps in the case of Jeanne Calment this is true to a certain extent. However, there appears to be no universal recipe for longevity. Back in 2007, scientists at the Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock compared the factors influencing the lives of centenarians who have reached the age of 100. Apart from good heredity, practically nothing was discovered that would unite these people.

Among the respondents were representatives of different races and nationalities, from both rich and poor families, both those who had never worked and those who worked tirelessly. True, in fairness it should be noted that most centenarians consumed quite a lot of chocolate. And scientists do not rule out that, among other things, the antioxidants contained in it had a positive effect on the health of these people.

We are not programmed to die

It is impossible to determine the maximum possible life expectancy of a person, British scientist Linda Partridge, who heads the Max Planck Institute for the Biology of Aging in Cologne, is convinced. A “time bomb” that “explodes” at a certain age does not exist in our body. We are not programmed to die,” she noted in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

But how will everything develop further? When will humanity reach its limit of life? Linda Partridge does not have a definite answer to these questions, but she admits that subsequent generations of people will live much longer than was established in the study of American scientists. At the same time, Partridge does not exclude that such “diseases of the century” as diabetes and obesity will have a negative impact on people’s life expectancy.

Scientist and futurist, founder of the Singularity University in Silicon Valley, José Luis Cordeiro, spoke in an interview with RT about what modern scientific discoveries give hope for the creation of technology for rejuvenating the human body.

According to him, a mechanism for stopping aging has already been found, tested in experiments with cells, organs and entire organisms, for example with mice. In a recent study, the lifespan of mice was able to almost triple, equivalent to 300 years of human life, while the mice remained healthy.

The same experiments were carried out on mosquitoes, which managed to extend life to an age similar to 400 human years, and worms, according to the study, can even survive 600-1000 human years.

We are constantly learning something new - and such results have been achieved in just 10 years. Imagine what will happen in another 10 years! Once these technologies are perfected, they can be applied to humans. We will be able to live longer by keeping the body in good condition, and our ultimate goal is to be able to live forever, shared José Luis Cordeiro.

Live forever

There is no limit to the duration of human life, and besides, there are immortal cells - stem cells, whose lifespan is unlimited. But in order for their “immortality” not to end, they must be kept in an appropriate environment, since when a person dies, they die along with the body, although they retain their youth, the scientist explained.

In addition to stem cells, scientists are actively studying cancer cells, since they are also biologically immortal.

If medicine is developing so rapidly and scientists will soon receive an answer to the question of how to live forever, many people have concerns: will this be available to ordinary people? Indeed, what will the authorities of different countries do when new methods of treating diseases are found, but end up in the hands of private companies, where only wealthy people can purchase the “elixir of youth”?

José Luis Cordeiro compared the arrival of the new vaccine to cell phones, which were far from perfect when they first appeared on the market:

As a rule, technologies at the initial stage of development are very expensive, and their effectiveness leaves much to be desired. When technology is democratized, it becomes cheaper and at the same time its efficiency increases. So the first “immortal” man may have to spend billions of dollars, and, worst of all, he may still die, since the technology will not yet reach the required level by that time.

Frozen people

One of the first steps towards achieving immortality was cryopreservation, or the freezing of living biological objects with the possibility of restoring their biological functions after thawing. To date, almost 300 people are in a state of deep freeze.

Scientists believe in the possibility of eternal life and continue to develop new ways to achieve this goal, but no one knows how long it will take. In case this does not happen soon, scientists have developed “Plan B” - cryopreservation, thanks to which people can be kept in a state of deep freezing and then returned to life.

This technology has existed for about 50 years, and today our knowledge is sufficient to preserve small cells, some tissues and organs. There have not yet been cases of a human body returning to life, but it was possible to remove worms from freezing, the scientist said.

X-Men

According to the futurologist, we live in a time when miracles are possible, and in 20-30 years the secret of immortality will be revealed.

We will begin to communicate using telepathy, one brain will communicate directly with another. Today our communication is imperfect, because oral speech is a very ineffective technology, I would say primitive, says José Luis Cordeiro.

In addition to the development of medicine, they are now working hard to create super-artificial intelligence, which in a few years will not seem like science fiction to us.

José Luis Cordeiro says there will be more changes in the next 20 years than in the last 2,000 years. The scientist’s predictions are amazing: if everything really goes according to this scenario, new possibilities will open up for humanity to study the world and itself.

But here the main question arises: are we ready for this?

Questions of eternal life have always interested man. Each continent had its own immortals - in the East, in Scandinavia, and among the indigenous American Indians. Symbols of eternal life: living water and rejuvenating apples, associated with eternal youth and immortality, are favorite attributes of Russian fairy tales.

There are immortal characters in the Bible too. For example, in the Old Testament there are several of these: Elijah, Moses, Melchizedek and Enoch. And at the beginning of the period described in the Holy Scriptures, people generally lived up to 1000 years.

But the Bible still guarantees eternal life. In future. A believer, after the end of his present and imperfect life, has the opportunity to receive from God eternal - divine life, "for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life." (Romans 6:23)

"Pill of Eternal Life"

From the point of view of science, a radical increase in life expectancy and the practical achievement of biological eternal life is the most important and completely solvable task of humanity. Even at this stage.

Today, scientists have not yet found the “pill of eternal life.” But genetics, cloning, stem cells are already designed to protect us from disease and old age, and cryocenters are designed to free us from the fear of death.

Immortalism

The understanding that the elimination of death can be achieved by means of the science of the future began to take shape in the 17th century. However, the prerequisites for the synthesis of disparate ideas into an integral philosophical system were formed only at the beginning of the 20th century. This direction at the intersection of philosophy and natural sciences that study the problems of physical immortality was called scientific immortalism. Immortalists believe that a radical extension of human life until he achieves physical immortality is achievable by completely scientific means.

The foundations of this teaching were laid in 1910-1920 in Russian cosmism, which is the prototype of modern scientific immortalism. At the beginning of the 20th century, the ideas of physical immortality, achievable through scientific progress, were developed and promoted by our compatriots. N.F. Fedorov proved the possibility of resurrection by the descendants of deceased ancestors, and I.I. Mechnikov, one of the founders of gerontology, substantiated the possibility of developing anti-aging methods.

Modern science is well aware of the mechanisms of aging. Almost decisive importance in the destruction of the body is given to the damaging effects of free radicals. These are aggressive oxygen molecules that are formed during the metabolic process. Having an unpaired electron and entering into chemical reactions with various substances in our cells, they oxidize and destroy them. They are the ones who take away more than a dozen years of our lives. And they are often the culprits of diseases such as cancer, heart disease and blood vessels.

"Repair system"

But the body has “repair systems” that can repair damage. True, they do not work indefinitely. At the first stage of life, our cells are able to divide quite quickly, thereby constantly renewing themselves. No matter what damaging factors act on the body, as long as the cells are renewed faster than the damage process occurs, the body remains young and healthy. But by the second half of life, the cell can no longer renew itself.

In 1971, Soviet scientist A.M. Olovnikov from the Institute of Biochemical Research at the Russian Academy of Sciences put forward a hypothesis that when a DNA molecule divides, its tip seems to break off. That is, with each division the molecule is constantly shortened and someday becomes unsuitable for the next division. The body at this stage begins to age. But if a mechanism were found that would stop this process of shortening molecules (they were called telomeres), human life could last extremely long. After all, there are immortal animals from among the simplest. For example, in hydra or sea anemone, the same continuous renewal of cells occurs, which are constantly formed by division from the area around the mouth. These animals, with proper care, live indefinitely without showing any signs of aging.

Why should the cells of the human body die? In the twentieth century, studying the mechanisms of cell death, scientists hypothesized that death is programmed, just as the death of organs is programmed. In plants this is the fall of leaves, in a tadpole - the disappearance of the tail, when turning into a frog, in a human embryo - the resorption of the tail and gills. That is, the cells do not die of old age, but actually commit suicide.

But if this is so, is it possible to try to reprogram the cell by removing the “die” command from its genetic code? Step by step, scientists reached their goal. In a chain of proteins, they identified a protein called p66, which gives the fatal command.

Scientists from the USA and Italy, under the leadership of Professor P. Pelicci, conducted a complex experiment. In experiments on mice, they neutralized the gene responsible for the production of the p66 protein, and the life expectancy of the mice increased by 30%. It's as if a person with a life expectancy of 75 years was given 22 more years as a gift! In parallel, a group of Canadian biologists neutralized two genes in worms, which have only a thousand cells in their bodies. These worms began to live 6 times longer. In humans, the processes leading to aging are duplicated many times over. This means that we need to look for other duplication mechanisms. For now, nature is playing an exciting game with us, but the end is not far away.

People kill themselves

As you can see, science has already come much closer to solving the issue of eternal life. But from the point of view of immortalism, people also die because they kill themselves. In addition to physical wear and tear of the body, the greatest enemy of humanity has been and remains ignorance. It is no coincidence that since the beginning of the twentieth century, immortalists have been striving to create a progressive society consisting of people with a high level of development of consciousness and, as a consequence, morality, whose behavior is controlled by consciousness, and not by instincts.

At the 3rd seminar on transhumanism and scientific immortalism, which took place in St. Petersburg on September 25, 2010, in the report of molecular biologist and inventor Stanislav Polozov, I heard a theory about 6 levels of life extension, which I want to describe here. If we discard the last three levels that seem unattainable for now, such as blocking aging signals, tissue reconstruction and virtualization of consciousness, the first three are accessible to us due to their simplicity:

1) Don't kill yourself. If possible, give up common bad habits such as smoking and alcohol.

2) Lead a correct lifestyle. Strive to limit your caloric intake, be sure to get enough sleep, perform moderate physical activity, refrain from stress, and fill your life with positive emotions and useful mental activity. It doesn't hurt to undergo an annual medical examination to get a complete picture of your physical condition.

3) Take more vitamins and diversify your diet with specialized medications.

As you can see, these rules are absolutely simple. But by consciously following them, you will make it more difficult for free radicals to accumulate in the body. This means extend your life and, at a minimum, live until our next publication in which we will talk about more specific methods of life extension that are available to us today.

Alexey Anikin, futurologist

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We grow up knowing that we will live and then we will die. Immortality is an illusion that we have been searching for since the beginning of human history. We think that death is the reason why life is precious and the dream of immortality is a foolish pursuit. Those who follow it are destined only for sorrow. But is it? The more we learn about genetics, the more we realize that it is indeed possible to live forever.

Why do we grow old?

Throughout life, cell division replaces dead cells to keep you healthy. Inside cells are bundles of storage complexes known as chromosomes. Inside these chromosomes is chromatin, which stores DNA, the code responsible for many of our traits. When these chromosomes split, the centromeres temporarily bind them together. Any half of a duplicated chromosome is called a chromatid, at the end of which are telomeres - the little things that will one day make it possible to live forever.

Telomeres are the most important part of the entire complex. Telomeres cap each chromatid, preventing cell degradation during replication. The problem is this: when your cells divide, the telomeres themselves begin to break down. Our bodies are unable to create new telomeres, and so over time our chromosomes no longer replicate accurately. This causes aging.

There are other factors that help determine the aging process, but telomeres are a big player.

Immortality of animals

Lobsters grow to death. Due to disease and predators, they never live forever. Turtles' organs do not degrade. Like lobsters, they could theoretically live forever if diseases were eradicated and they were placed in a predator-free environment. Other animals simply regenerate.

Why can't people? The answer lies in our genetic code. Let us learn to manipulate this, and we will achieve immortality.

Immortality of man

Animals are one thing, and people are another. A handful of people around the world have a rare genetic disorder that prevents them from aging. Obviously, biological immortality is not such a fairy tale. We know that it is possible to live forever because these people do not grow or age. Naturally, scientists are very interested in this condition. In one case, an American man, 29 years old, has the body of a premature baby. In another, a Brazilian woman, 31, looks no older than a baby.

You can live forever, but how close is science?

Researchers have spent lifetimes studying the subject. Scientists have greatly extended the lives of organisms by imparting resistance to several diseases that would normally kill them. Perhaps the first step for people is to stop obesity or eradicate heart disease and cancer.

But we don't want an expansion of options, we want an absolute. Other scientists have studied some non-aging animals and discovered specific genes associated with age. It turns out that humans have the same genes. To test people's gene-related theories, we unfortunately need to learn how to turn genes on and off. Scientists are confident that one day we will be able to do this.

We know many reasons why aging occurs. They are all linked to the genetic code, which is why we know that aging is just a genetic mutation present in most species. Scientists are confident that we will be able to overcome this obstacle in the near future and will be able to live forever. Of course, we will still be subject to accidents that prohibit regenerative nanotechnology, or the uploading of our thoughts into robot bodies, and we will still die sooner or later. But the timing of our deaths will become much more uncertain.