From the Daily Mail:
The secret of eternal youth has been unlocked by scientists in remarkable research that paves the way for a ‘forever young’ drug.Lives could be longer and healthier, free from illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and heart disease, with skin and hair retaining its youthful lustre.
Such a drug might allow men and women to have children naturally until they are a ripe old age.
[...]
They were carried out by cancer doctor Ronald DePinho of Harvard University in the U.S. and detailed in the prestigious journal Nature.Before treatment, their skin, brains, guts and other organs resembled those of an 80-year-old person.
Within just two months of being given a drug that switches on a key enzyme, the creatures had grown so many new cells that they had almost completely rejuvenated.
Remarkably, the male mice went from being infertile to fathering large litters.
Dr DePinho said: ‘In human terms, it would be like having a 40-year-old person who looked 80-plus and reversing the effects to the levels of a 50-year-old.
Read the rest here
And in a related story, organizers of the American Catholic Council will be soliciting volunteers at their upcoming June 2012 event to take part in clinical trials. Sign-ups are expected to go through the roof.
Seriously, though...
I can see where such a breakthrough would be enticing to a lot of people, like maybe atheists and those who want to put off meeting God for as long as possible, and possibly even Bret Favre or Hugh Hefner. Not me, though. When it's my time, just let me go. We live in a vale of tears - why prolong it any longer than need be? Besides, who wants to endure a Bret Favre retirement press conference, only to see him hold an un-retirement press conference three days later where he switches to yet another team, for the next, oh I don't know, forty some odd years? And who wants to hang around with non-believers and skeptics longer than necessary anyway (besides other non-believers and skeptics, of course)? They're no fun to be with now, and they sure as heck won't be any more fun with an extra sixty to seventy years tacked on, right?
