Immortality is here

For a couple months now I have been heavily researching emerging technology for a class that I am teaching called "Current and Future Tech, or Why We Are All Doomed". We have discussed everything from robots and A.I., to fully immersive realities like The Matrix, to interstellar travel and much much more. Basically each topic centers around some kind of new announcement about a technology or an innovation that we thought wouldn't be here for another 50 years, and is here today.

Ladies and gentlemen...immortality is here. Or at least closer than we thought.

To our class, this is not necessarily big news. It's been fairly clear for a couple months now that with current research, people will be able to extend their lives by, say, 3 years fairly soon. The thing is, within those 3 years another life extension treatment will most likely come out that extends your life by 5 years, and so on and so on. Basically, given enough time to develop that initial treatment (they've already done it in mice), those people living today are going to be able to live forever.

However, the latest results blew even me away. Instead of extending life in small increments, scientists have literally become able to stop cell death. The whole process is a little complicated if you don't know cell biology, but basically when a cell divides it chops off this end portion of a chromosome called a telomere. When too much has been chopped off, after many many many divisions, the cell stops dividing and dies. This is basically the biology behind aging. And now scientists have found a way to introduce an enzyme called telomerase, which replaces the chopped off bits of telomeres, into cells that normally don't have it. The only problem is that while this stops cell death, it also means unlimited cell growth, a.k.a. cancer. But trust me, the cure for that isn't far away either (check for a later post!). Especially if they can find a way to turn telomerase on and off, the job becomes easy. It could also mean quick regeneration if paired with stem cell research.

In other related news, scientists have discovered a key protein that helps repair damaged tissue that appears to stop working with age. But reinsert that protein into aged/damaged tissue...and it repairs as if it were young again. So basically, those who are old can become young again. The research is in its preliminary stages, but don't be surprised if in the next 10 years we get a fountain of youth in pill form. Couple that with immortality, and we have a race of people living forever in the prime of their youth.

Sound like science fiction? It was. But it's quickly becoming fact.