New Research Could Slow Human Aging

schliz writes "A team of scientists from Japan and New Zealand have helped baker's yeast live 50% longer than usual by artificially stabilizing a genetic sequence called ribosomal DNA. The study's authors say that rDNA is a 'hot spot for production of the aging signal.' Because rDNA genes are very similar in yeast and humans, they say their experiment is a first step towards anti-aging drugs."

Comments

How does that work?

[Anonymous Coward]

So, by doing new research, I won't age as fast?

Re:How does that work?

[Mitchell314]

Well, remaining mentally and physically active has been linked to prolonged life spans . . .

Re:How does that work?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Well, remaining mentally and physically active has been linked to prolonged life spans . . .

And vice versa, confirmed by a recent study on a large group of scientists with the control group being the local cemetery.

Re:How does that work?

[kesuki]

over active people also wear out their body parts with the exertion. there is a happy medium though and i think that it just needed to be clarified. if you run several super marathons every year its going to kill you early... if you run a 5k it's all good.

Re:How does that work?

[cayenne8]

over active people also wear out their body parts with the exertion. there is a happy medium though and i think that it just needed to be clarified. if you run several super marathons every year its going to kill you early... if you run a 5k it's all good.

I think more studies are showing that intermittent interval sorts of exercise are the best.

You do explosive runs for short bursts...and then do slow walking, lower activities in between, but these short intense explosions of activity mixed with low intensity activity seems to have the best effect on the human body.

At least from what I'm reading these days...

Re:How does that work?

[Mitchell314]

It goes without saying that taking something to extremes leads to different results.

Re:How does that work?

[DavidClarkeHR]

Well, remaining mentally and physically active has been linked to prolonged life spans . . .

Right. So if I work hard, exercise and deprive myself of good food, I might live long enough for them to slow down my aging process to 1/10th of normal. And I'll have a chipper 4 more years until death, instead of several weeks.

Re:How does that work?

[ackthpt]

So, by doing new research, I won't age as fast?

Perhaps you may not age as fast, but if you enjoy living less (somewhat how I hear marriage goes) what's the point?

Re:How does that work?

[Mitchell314]

Not right. That's not what I said.

Re:How does that work?

[mcgrew]

And as this study shows, genetics can play an even larger part. But try convincing my 84 year old mother that, she's convinced eating right and getting exercise was why she's old and healthy, despite the fact that she's the baby of the family and almost all of her siblings are still alive. One is 99 and owned a bar when she was middle aged, my guess from knowing bar owners she was far from a teetotaler.

Now I understand what part of my DNA had the health screeners say my vitals showed a healthy forty year old and excellent for someone 61. They thought I must work out, but I get little exercise and eat a lot of junk food, drink a little beer and have smoked pot for four decades. Most people are amazed that I'm over 50. Of course, my rDNA won't keep me from staggering in front of a bus or something.

If all your grandparents died of natural causes before age 60, no amount of diet or exercise will keep you alive past 70. But perhaps this research will come up with something that will.

Re:How does that work?

[Anonymous Coward]

And as this study shows, genetics can play an even larger part. But try convincing my 84 year old mother that, she's convinced eating right and getting exercise was why she's old and healthy, despite the fact that she's the baby of the family and almost all of her siblings are still alive. One is 99 and owned a bar when she was middle aged, my guess from knowing bar owners she was far from a teetotaler.

This has been long known.

Dawn, n: The time when men of reason go to bed. Certain old men prefer to rise at about that time, taking a cold bath and a long walk with an empty stomach, and otherwise mortifying the flesh. They then point with pride to these practices as the cause of their sturdy health and ripe years; the truth being that they are hearty and old, not because of their habits, but in spite of them. The reason we find only robust persons doing this thing is that it has killed all the others who have tried it.

Re:How does that work?

[Anonymous Coward]

And as this study shows, genetics can play an even larger part. But try convincing my 84 year old mother that, she's convinced eating right and getting exercise was why she's old and healthy, despite the fact that she's the baby of the family and almost all of her siblings are still alive. One is 99 and owned a bar when she was middle aged, my guess from knowing bar owners she was far from a teetotaler.

This has been long known.

Dawn, n: The time when men of reason go to bed. Certain old men prefer to rise at about that time, taking a cold bath and a long walk with an empty stomach, and otherwise mortifying the flesh. They then point with pride to these practices as the cause of their sturdy health and ripe years; the truth being that they are hearty and old, not because of their habits, but in spite of them. The reason we find only robust persons doing this thing is that it has killed all the others who have tried it.

Apologies for omitting the attribution. The above is from The Devil's Dictionary

Re:How does that work?

[Anonymous Coward]

will I also be able to convert starches into alcohol and C02?

Re:How does that work?

[ackthpt]

will I also be able to convert starches into alcohol and C02?

Most likely you will continue to produce CH4.

Re:How does that work?

[moteyalpha]

I am a planarian and I -am- immortal you insensitive clod! I remember the Mesoproterozoic Era, the times we had. I guess I will be 1.7 billion years old this year, but it seems like yesterday. I have this AI to help me post on slashdot, and they relaxed the rules a bit because of my age. But I am the one that spawned the original line and I have my original brain which has been active for nigh on a billion years, so now get off my bacterial lawn. I attribute my great age to proper eating habits as I only eat free range organic protozoa and keep kosher.

Re:How does that work?

[Anonymous Coward]

So, by doing new research, I won't age as fast?

Not quite, you need the new research, and to be freeze dried and sealed into 1/4 oz packets.

Re:How does that work?

[Anonymous Coward]

Being physically active prolongs live.
Being mentally active doesn't prolong life. It does delay the onset of the symptoms of dementias, though not the time it takes for dementias to kill you.

Similar results have been claimed before from yeast. And that time it didn't even apply to other strains of yeast, let alone people. And the researcher has since been accused of fabricating results to falsely prove it did. And they have a found a way of reducing aging in mice which was hailed as a cure for aging in humans. Though it caused immunodeficiency and osteoporosis in the mice and is never going to be even trialed in humans.

These days anything after the results in a scientific paper is just spin to get more attention and funding. People should stop posting this nonsense to Slashdot.

Re:How does that work?

[bitt3n]

Well, remaining mentally and physically active has been linked to prolonged life spans . . .

not just linked. there's a concrete relationship: 100% of dead people are neither mentally nor physically active.

Re:How does that work?

[ChrisMaple]

You have no idea what good food is.

Re:How does that work?

[Anonymous Coward]

And yet still a seven digit UID...

Re: How does that work?

[Anonymous Coward]

Been fapping and or fucking 3 hours a day for 20 years, penis still working happily!

Re:How does that work?

[FingerDemon]

You are over simplifying things. I mean it is great if you are on track to a long and happy life of easy to maintain good health. But I can think of numerous scenarios right now where a person's grandparents die of natural causes before 60 and the genetic issues that person inherits are now treatable with modern medicine. Sure on an actuarial table, it doesn't look good. But it is probably better to say that if all your grandparents died of natural causes before age 60, make sure you have regular checkups with your doctor as you hit your forties and beyond.

Anecdotally, I had a relative that was a heavy smoker (cigarettes) and overate all the wrong things. Had warnings for years from doctors. He must have been blessed genetically because he still lived a pretty long time. Who knows how much longer he would have lived if he had eaten a better diet, quit smoking and gotten some exercise? Genetics is a part of the picture. It isn't everything. I also think stress has a big role. You sound pretty happy with your lifestyle. That can help. Just stay away from busses when you are drinking beer. :-)

Re:How does that work?

[mcgrew]

Yes, everything you say is so. If your grandparents all died of heart disease, we now have stents, transplants, etc.

I had a great uncle like your relative. Started smoking at age 12, quit at 82 and died at 92. Might have lived to well over a hundred without the tobacco.

Re:How does that work?

[unapersson]

This was also the kind of excercise that lead to the BBC's Political Editor having a stroke so YMMV.

Re:How does that work?

[CoolHnd30]

over active people also wear out their body parts with the exertion. there is a happy medium though and i think that it just needed to be clarified. if you run several super marathons every year its going to kill you early... if you run a 5k it's all good.

What is your source for that? I think these people would disagree...

Re:How does that work?

[CoolHnd30]

In the book Born to Run McDougall illustrates the theory that no only are those Tarahumara not unique, but the unique trait that let the entire human race survive when coming down from the trees (and get enough protein to build our large brains) was the ability to run extremely long distances and utilize persistence hunting. Here's a nice little video on the tarahumara and touching on some themes in the book...

Re:How does that work?

[coinreturn]

Well, remaining mentally and physically active has been linked to prolonged life spans . . .

not just linked. there's a concrete relationship: 100% of dead people are neither mentally nor physically active.

Exceptions: zombies, vampires.

Re:How does that work?

[Desty]

High-intensity interval training has shown to be superior as a form of cardiovascular exercise and may have other benefits on metabolism etc, but there seems to be some evidence that frequent and extremely intense exercise leads to higher oxidative stress, which is very strongly implicated as a primary factor in aging. I'm excited about HIIT too, so I'm hoping it doesn't really turn out to be the case that it makes me age faster...

But

[nani popoki]

...when 900 yeas old you be, look so good you will not!

Re:But

[macraig]

Even at 900, spell better than you Yoda could!

Re:But

[mjpollard]

Unless you're a Time Lord, in which case you stand a good chance of looking like David Tennant or Matt Smith. I could live with that.

Re:But

[CanHasDIY]

Not until we figger out regeneration.

Re: But

[Anonymous Coward]

Slower aging, regeneration; six of one, half dozen of your mother.

Re:But

[mcgrew]

His keyboard is 370 years old and the R doesn't work any more.

Re:But

[macraig]

It's a Northgate Omni, huh?

Re:But

[Anonymous Coward]

figger

Gods! Your English is aged beyond comprehension.

Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[mi]

I suspect, the governments — the leading stewards of the research dollars — aren't particularly interested in lengthening the lifespans. Because delaying the retirement age is politically difficult, such lengthening may further enlarge the number of people receiving retirement benefits.

Other social aspects will be affected too — such as bosses not retiring for longer, thus slowing down careers of the underlings.

Obviously, it would ultimately be a good thing for society, but not without quite some upheaval and costs. By trusting the government to spend the research dollars, that are already taxed away from us, we may have slowed this particular research down a bit...

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[Anonymous Coward]

These problems are all solvable. Give people an option: 1) Receive treatment, accept delayed retirement age. 2) Forego treatment, retire when planned.

To paraphrase Barack Obama, if you like the lifespan you currently have, then you can keep it.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[Anonymous Coward]

We could adopt the solution they came up with in Logan's Run.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[Anonymous Coward]

I suspect that those in power are very interested in it for themselves and much less so for the average populace.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[mi]

I suspect that those in power are very interested in it for themselves

I suspect, it is too late for the people already in power to be getting any sorts of treatment. Thus, they have no prospect of benefit for themselves...

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[Anonymous Coward]

Makes perfect sense for Japan and other countries experiencing population crashes and not especially keen to weaken immigration controls. Making currently-younger people live longer, and presumably healthier during that prolonged period, mitigates the working-age population. Doesn't help places like the US so much.

It would also mean adjusting the public pension schemes of many countries, but they kind of needed to do that anyway.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[intermodal]

Whatever keeps people paying into the system while raising the retirement age, ne?

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Other social aspects will be affected too — such as bosses not retiring for longer, thus slowing down careers of the underlings.

Most everyone's careers would get slowered by that, perhaps proportionally to the lengthening of the active phase of life. But is that a bad thing? It would generally mean that people who get into higher positions would have more experience at average.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[niado]

This presupposes that our politicians withhold dollars from this sort of research to help their successors avoid difficult political decisions...these types of breakthroughs would take decades to produce anything even remotely practicable, and it would probably be a century before any imagined longevity vs. retirement age conflict became an issue.

I am pretty cynical when it comes to politics, but that's way out on a limb.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[cayenne8]

We could adopt the solution they came up with in Logan's Run.

What? Everyone only lives till age 21?

(from the original book, much better than the lame movie).

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[pixelpusher220]

if you aren't aging then you are still viable as a worker. This isn't just extending the time we're elderly, this is extending the time we're in our prime work years.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[Mr_Plattz]

I challenge your comment that "it would ultimately be a good thing for society". I look around and I'm not particularly impressed. My neighbour downstairs is 29 with a 13 year old daughter and is on social security (called the dole in Australia) - never worked. Based on her first 29 years, I cannot see anything good coming to society for her living an extra 40 years.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not sure how this tripe was moderated interesting. You're a buffoon.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

"I suspect, the governments — the leading stewards of the research dollars — aren't particularly interested in lengthening the lifespans"

I suspect that it hinges more on 'lengthening lifespans' vs. 'slowing aging'. Weak, sick, old people are not something anybody with medical or pension obligations really want living longer. If people became weak, sick, and old more slowly, though, you'd score more person-years of post-childhood, post-education, experienced labor (and, given most people's preparations for retirement, having them just say 'eh, fuck it' and stop working could largely be avoided, with the added "benefit" of keeping young workers in cheap, entry-level positions for much longer periods of time).

If this sort of research were steered purely by economic considerations, 'anti-aging' would probably be be behind dealing with common causes of mortality in children and young adults; but would be ahead of treating things that mostly kill old people. (Also worth remembering: 'the governments', if a useful generalization can be drawn at all, are heavily skewed toward people who are themselves... not exactly getting any younger. Compare the US population generally with Congress. If legislating with one foot in the grave doesn't increase the apparent need for anti-aging research, I'm not sure what would...)

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

This is likely true; but mortality salience isn't one of those factors that you really get conscious control over, any more than fear of flying is cured through statistical demonstration of its (superb) safety record...

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[Anonymous Coward]

Government? Hell, I hope you never have to return something at a store. With even more old people the line to customer service counters will be so long it will have cops directing traffic.

If old people love anything more than a captive audience (employee) who's not allowed to say "leave me alone" or "no one cares that it wasn't just so", I couldn't tell you what it is. So many of them seem lonely and desperate for attention and apparently any kind will do.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[stephenmac7]

Which, of course, would be why you would not trust the government to do anything of this sort.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[Anonymous Coward]

A shame it's not "if you like the privacy you currently have, you can keep it."

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not the barrier to this sort of thing. The main barrier is that people see the whole idea of radical or even moderate life extension as a joke. It's all a myth, right, like the fountain of youth? If people could snap out of their death worship long enough to realize that life extension is as much of a possible medical target as anything else is, there would be riots in the streets to get more funding for such lines of research. As it is, I don't think that will happen until someone actually comes up with a workable way of extending healthy life in humans by a decade or so. At that point it will be obvious to everyone that it is possible because it has already been done and all the stupid excuses for why it's bad will go away because people will realize that they, in fact, DO want this treatment that will significantly extend their healthy life. With current minimal levels of funding, it will probably be a very long time until that happens, but it will happen. After that point there will be so much funding for the research that there'll likely be rapid progress since then all of the promising low hanging fruit can be picked all at once in parallel.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[mi]

If people became weak, sick, and old more slowly, though, you'd score more person-years of post-childhood, post-education, experienced labor

Of course! This is why I said, it will be ultimately useful to society. However, it would require delaying the retirement, which is a difficult thing to do politically.

A 67 year-old may — thanks to some miracle treatment — be hale and healthy, but he is still legally entitled to pension.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[mi]

Not sure how this tripe was moderated interesting. You're a buffoon.

Let me guess... You were offended by my questioning the wisdom of our letting the government decide, what aspects of medicine should be helped with our dollars?

Wow... The big-government fans are certainly easy to degrade into name-calling...

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am 62 and have heard of these "life extending" findings since I was 20. I have been waiting 42 years for these "life extending" drugs, findings, developments, devices. These have never materialized.

Now with increase delays caused by the Federal Government, they will never, ever reach to marketplace. Neither I nor you will be able to buy and consume these. There is a high price to pay from developing the safety of drugs/device/etc. more strictly than the Europeans. The European standards permit more death per 1,000 people taking/using than the USA. The Federal Government is killing us, literally in the case of life extending" stuff, through over-regulation and over-taxation.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[mi]

Which, of course, would be why you would not trust the government to do anything of this sort.

I wouldn't, of course. Unfortunately, Socialism has this sort of appeal to the "low-information voter".

Any question like: "Would you like the government to help research life-saving medicines?" — gets a resounding "yes" from many people. Without it occurring to most, that it means, the government officials — the same omniscient and benevolent folks, who have already given us the Department of Motor Vehicles, the NSA, the Post Office, Amtrak and commuter rail — will be deciding, what "life-saving" means, and how the research is to be conducted.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[Anonymous Coward]

Great. The blinking light in my hands went out of battery a lot time ago.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[the eric conspiracy]

I agree that this would create massive social issues.

However the idea that delaying the retirement age is politically difficult is only valid in the current context. In a society where people live 50% longer I think there would be great political will to adjust the retirement age to compensate.

It's been done before in response to much weaker motivation.

It may ultimately have big economic advantages. For example:

1. Increased incentive to take care of one's health.
2. Better return (over a longer lifetime) on the costs of raising and educating a child.
3. Increased incentives to save.
4. Better depth of experience for making decisions by adults.

The bad side:

Without term limits we could end up with some really fucking old Congressmen and members of the Supreme Court.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[Master Moose]

There is no sanctuary

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[Master Moose]

The current PM of New Zealand was raised on welfare.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[rubycodez]

get raised on welfare and turn out a politician? disgusting.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[symbolset]

— aren't particularly interested in lengthening the lifespans

... of the common folk. For themselves they are all for carefully regulated longevity.

There is a useful book about this: "Assignment In Eternity" by Robert A. Heinlein. Lost his wits toward the end, but he was ill. That part needed a second book and better treatment. Still a good read.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[Master Moose]

As I was writing that, I was unsure if I was making a positive comment about people on the benefit or a negative one.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[ChrisMaple]

So you think you can keep the treatment entirely under control of the government, so that the government can withhold other goodies if you opt for a long life? Think again.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[ChrisMaple]

Any healthy person who earns enough to save a significant amount, can invest that money in a way that provides an income indefinitely after normal retirement age. Such a person cannot be politically controlled into delaying retirement.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[ChrisMaple]

You haven't been paying attention. There are a great many supplements and drugs, each of which provides some statistical life extension. What hasn't happened is the development of one single thing that alone provides a huge life expectancy boost. Do your own literature search on what's necessary to help yourself, then do it.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[Anonymous Coward]

So what you're really saying is that neither of them will put out for you, right?

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[daem0n1x]

Besides, if people stop dying, what will they make Soylent Green from? There will be famine!

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

It would be bad if this decreased the overall economic output of the society per capita, but unless this parameter actually worsened, I can't see how this would lead to anything bad either. Also, anecdotal evidence, consisting of an individual we know virtually nothing about to boot, is hardly relevant here.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[khallow]

My neighbour downstairs is 29 with a 13 year old daughter and is on social security (called the dole in Australia) - never worked.

At least, if your neighbor lives to 150, she'll have time to turn her life around. And if she's raising a daughter, she's worked - just never been paid for it.

Re: Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[Anonymous Coward]

And who ordered this child?

Re: Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[khallow]

Just because something is work doesn't mean that anyone values that work.

Re:Are governments interested in long lifespans?

[stephenmac7]

If I had any mod points left, I would mod this golden post up.

I for one welcome...

[Anonymous Coward]

... Our immortal yeast overlords.

Re:I for one welcome...

[ChrisMaple]

All hail Emperor Budweiser.

With a world population of 7 billion,

[Nutria]

fresh water supplies at crisis levels and extreme weather happening more often... worst idea evar!

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[CanHasDIY]

fresh water supplies at crisis levels and extreme weather happening more often... worst idea evar!

Yea, this - just what we don't need, more and more old and infirm people doubling the amount of resources they use up while providing no net benefit to the rest of society.

I mean, if we're talking about a system that will stop the aging process at, say, 30, and leave you with that body for the next 60-100 years, OK then; but we all know that's not going to be the case.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously, only the rich will get to live longer. That's the beauty of the system.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[jedidiah]

Don't be silly. The poor won't get to stop aging at 30. They will get screwed just like they always have. Only the ultra wealthy will have access to this stuff. Only a small subset of the population will get to stop aging at 30. The rest will get shortened lifespans if anything.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[gl4ss]

longer life expectancy correlates with smaller population growth.. just saying.

btw if you want to buy some fresh water I got plenty to sell. it's not running out. moving it to where people for some stupid historical reason want to live is the problem...

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Anonymous Coward]

Except for the 123 year-old Bolivian sheep herder who may or may not be a vampire.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[HeckRuler]

So.... by that logic... are you suggesting we shorten the lifespan of the everyone? Does that seem like a good idea to you?

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Nutria]

How in the hell do you equate extending life is a bad idea with contracting life is a good idea? Aren't /. readers supposed to have a higher-than-average level of intelligence?

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

fresh water supplies at crisis levels and extreme weather happening more often... worst idea evar!

Age-related mortality has a certain special flavor to it, by virtue of being inevitable; but suitably motivated humans can trivially breed substantially above replacement rates even when living rather shorter lives than they do now (and, particularly when talking about women with dubious access to medical care, they often do live substantially shorter lives when breeding well above replacement rates...)

Old people who just won't die, damn it, will present problems of their own; but birthrate is the name of the game when it comes to population size (sure, there's war, famine, and pestilence; but you need a truly epic instance of any of these to equal the demographic effect of, say, the not-even-state-coerced shift in birthrates seen in places that can afford cool stuff like 'birth control' and 'college parties'.)

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Arrogant Monkey]

You could argue the exact opposite. Life extension would just as likely mean folks making the decisions impacting climate and environment now have to live with the consequences.

And if you hadn't noticed, birth rates are dropping precipitously in those countries where poverty rates fall -- China and India are showing this today, just as many of the asian tiger countries did 20 years ago. So much so that we're going to be having real problems in 20-30 years in the developed world, because (aside from the US) we don't have replacement workers coming into the market to replace the ones retiring and dying. We will level off around 10B.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[jeffmflanagan]

Aren't /. readers supposed to have a higher-than-average level of intelligence?

No, not for several years now. You're thinking of the old pre-sellout /. before the steep fall in article and comment quality.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[wjcofkc]

Reminds me of that recent dystopian sci-fi movie 'In Time'. Not the greatest flick, but it shows where your point could lead... more or less.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[HeckRuler]

It's called "the inverse".
If A then B. So.... If !A then !B?

Come on dude...

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[CanHasDIY]

How in the hell do you equate extending life is a bad idea with contracting life is a good idea? Aren't /. readers supposed to have a higher-than-average level of intelligence?

Higher-than-your-average-news-site-commentator, but that isn't really saying much.

OTOH, perhaps it's an indication that even the more learned among our species still struggle with issues like cognitive dissonance, false equivalence, and faulty reasoning.

Option 3 is that maybe he knows what he's saying, and is just being a dick.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[mcgrew]

This isn't going to make you stop aging at 30, it will simply slow the aging process. Have you not noticed that some people at 50 look 70 and some 60 look 50? Some people simply age faster than others and this study shows why.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Nutria]

We will level off around 10B.

That's still too many for a highly mechanized world.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Nutria]

You're assuming the binary solution set of "increase" and "decrease" instead of the trinary "increase", "static" and "decrease".

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Oligonicella]

My thoughts were 'Repent Harlequin, Cried the Tick Tock Man'.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[0123456]

Yes, obviously EVIL CORPORATIONS making anti-aging drugs will refuse to sell them to poor people, because EVIL CORPORATIONS like not making money where they can.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Anonymous Coward]

The inverse isn't always necessarily true; neither is the converse. Only the contrapositive is.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[JoshuaZ]

People say this about almost all new technologies. People worried that the internet would divide the world into haves and have-nots. What happened? It became so ubiquitous that even people in low income brackets have internet access in many forms. As something becomes more used, the cost goes down, and then more people can afford it, and then it goes down even more. Cars, computers, internet, laptops, cell phones, TVs, etc. If this works, it won't take long before it is available to everyone.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone stops aging in that flick. That aside, it's close.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Anonymous Coward]

The drugs would be too expensive for the poor people to buy them... You don't make money selling things at a loss.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[ChrisMaple]

How do you know the drugs would be too expensive for poor people to buy them? Multivitamins are available at WalMart, and they're a part of the regimen of anyone who's seriously practicing life extension.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[ChrisMaple]

Lifespan is a continuum, so the size of the "static" category is vanishingly small. The realistic choices are only increase and decrease.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[ChrisMaple]

Prove it. Your assertion does not make it true.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Anonymous Coward]

Simple demand, with some greed mixed in.

For example, say there was a pill that when taken regularly would let people eat whatever they wanted without ever gaining weight, and there were zero side effects.

Please explain the motive of the parent company that would make them sell this pill at cost, when they could jack it up 10x and still have people beating down the doors to buy it.

This is the true basis of our economic system, by the way.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Nutria]

Correct. I'm presuming that a small change in life expectancy will have a negligible impact on world population, and thus can be approximated to be "static".

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Nutria]

Is this the "saddle makers found jobs making cars", thus every bit of manufacturing automation will therefore lead to jobs for the displaced workers defense?

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Zontar The Mindless]

That's pretty funny coming from someone with a 7-digit UID who uses G+ to log in.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Zontar The Mindless]

You live in a capitalist society, and yet you completely fail to understand what it's based on.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[exigentsky]

Just like all technology, it will trickle down and become cheaper. The cost of any such new treatment is likely to be prohibitive but I don't get your attitude.

It's not as if every poor person is in their situation just due to life circumstances. My dad came from Romania to the US with a few dollars to his name but had an excellent education and is now doing very well financially. Other people from no better family circumstances are quite poor and that's often reflected in their choices. I know the system's not totally fair and neither is the environment we're born in. However, we still have some control.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Anonymous Coward]

This is simply not true. According to the dept. of commerce, there are 100 million poor people who don't have internet access

http://www.esa.doc.gov/sites/default/files/reports/documents/exploringthedigitalnation-computerandinternetuseathome.pdf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20899109

And if you leave the western world for a moment you'll find its even worse.

I don't know where you're getting your information about ubiquity, but it's just plain wrong.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Beyond_GoodandEvil]

Really? My thoughts were of Lee Falk's "Time is Money."

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, of course... They must give it away for free, evil socialist. Right.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Arrogant Monkey]

No, he is pointing out you have an assertion, not an argument. They're different, and neither are compelling absent supporting facts.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Anonymous Coward]

“50 is the new 40, for men. 50 is still 60, for women.”- Jack Donaghy.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Deflagro]

This place has definitely changed. I was on here for a couple years before I decided to make a UID and stop being a Coward :P

Every so often you will see a nugget of brilliance from someone but then I see some tea party poster get modded to +5 and have to wonder what happened.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Anonymous Coward]

No one said that, and I personally never said it was a bad thing. Just that it is a fact, as your meme indicates.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Nutria]

Well, I *did* make an assertion.... which I figure raises the saddle maker hackles of technophiles everywhere who believe in never-ending upward progress.

(I think that just like liquids can become saturated with dissolved solids,, human society can -- has -- become oversaturated saturated with automation, and thus -- breaking with the saturation analogy -- there's not enough work for many people to do at a "middle class" wage.

Sure, I might be wrong, but the evidence before me convinces me of the correctness of that assertion.)

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[HeckRuler]

Ah, in that case, the correct response would be along the lines of:
"No, I like things the way they are now."

Which, glancing at the current trend, still doesn't seem like a grand idea.
Perhaps if you take into account the hope of India and China becoming first-world nations and following the trend where their birth rate decline.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Nutria]

Ah, in that case, the correct response would be along the lines of:
"No, I like things the way they are now."

Wow, you really can't perform logical analysis.

I've made no such indication in these comments that I'm happy with the world at 7 billion. If you think I have, please point it out.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[HeckRuler]

Well you, quite correctly, pointed out that there are three options on the table:

You're assuming the binary solution set of "increase" and "decrease" instead of the trinary "increase", "static" and "decrease".

You originally decried the idea of increasing lifespans.
And my postulating the inverse of your original statement drew derision from you.
That kind of leaves "static" as your last fallback.

Or there's the possibility that you're just never truly happy.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[Nutria]

And my postulating the inverse of your original statement drew derision from you.

Only because your logic was W-R-O-N-G. No other fscking reason.

That kind of leaves "static" as your last fallback.,

No, no, no, no, NO!!!!

Just because I can see a different point of view from someone else, does not mean that I believe it or want it.

Re:With a world population of 7 billion,

[HeckRuler]

Well goodness me, that's fascinating.

Do tell then, do you think it would be best if the average lifespan of humans were to decrease, remain more or less static, or increase?

New Research Could Slow Human Aging

[milindss]

Great news for Interstellar travel!

Re:New Research Could Slow Human Aging

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Great news for Interstellar travel!

I suspect that it's deep hibernation or nothing (unless you are talking world-ships on a scale that would give most Kuiper belt objects inferiority issues) in that area. Replacing humans as they wear out has never been a huge problem, dealing with upkeep on the functional ones definitely has.

Re:New Research Could Slow Human Aging

[Anonymous Coward]

Next batch of home made beer must have Baker's yeast in it. Great way to extend life !

Re:New Research Could Slow Human Aging

[Whorhay]

I don't even know that hibernation would even be enough. We'd still have to contend with protecting the bodies over time scales that dwarf anything we've designed and built to date. I think the only real hope is in figuring out brain to machine transfers, and possibly a transfer in the other direction eventually if you wanted. Even then we'd still have the issue of building a ship capable of maintaining its functionality over time scales that are again longer than we've ever done.

Re:New Research Could Slow Human Aging

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

That, and the faster your ship gets, the more the tenuous (but not nonexistent) flecks of gas and dust in interstellar space start looking like kinetic kill vehicles(at ~ 5% of C, any helium you encounter will punch you like alpha radiation, and faster or larger makes things worse)... Luckily, radiation doesn't imperil most of material science's little toys, at all.

What about prison for some a life sentence shout

[Anonymous Coward]

What about prison for some a life sentence is to shout and we can get a lot of labor out of inmates

What exactly is slowed?

[jasnw]

Does this sort of thing cover both the aging of the body and the brain? What's the gain in living to be 150 if your brain stops functioning at any sort of useful level at age 70? Yeah, "lots of people" are still firing on all mental cylinders at age 70, but most are not. If everyone is alive up to age 150 but is a non-productive consumer of stuff starting at age 70 this whole "live long and prosper" thing will be a total nightmare. Even if brain aging is held in check, do we have the resources to support that many human beings on this planet?

Re:What exactly is slowed?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, just stop breeding like rats.

Re:What exactly is slowed?

[marcosdumay]

TFS says they tested that in yeast, thus you either didn't care enough to read it, or is asking if the yeast mental activity was degraded.

Re:What exactly is slowed?

[Anonymous Coward]

If everyone is alive up to age 150 but is a non-productive consumer of stuff starting at age 70

It would be the biggest boost to productivity in the history of mankind if this treatment meant that people didn't become non-productive onsumers of stuff until age 70.

Re:What exactly is slowed?

[erice]

According to TFA, genetic damage during cell division is slowed. Brain aging would be affected little, at least directly. So few new neurons are produced during adulthood that for a long time, it was thought that all the neurons that a human would ever have were present at birth. Still, having a healthier support system for the brain should reduce cell death.

Further, there is still the potential for other advances to add the ability to generate new neurons. There is no particular reason why aging needs to be conquered with a single method.

Re:What exactly is slowed?

[ljw1004]

Loss of brain function isn't a normal part of healthy ageing - it's the symptom of a DISEASE (usually alzheimers that affects 50%+ of 80 yr olds) and will eventually be cured through medicine like other diseases.

Re:What exactly is slowed?

[Anonymous Coward]

Mandate sterilization as a condition to life extension.

Re:What exactly is slowed?

[HeckRuler]

There have been some studies, and I'm sorry that I don't have a source on hand, that losing mental capacity is more a matter of not using it than natural degregation. Barring diseases (and a lot of diseases are pretty synonymous with your body falling apart) if you don't stop exercising your mind you'll stay mentally sharp. Too many people retire, get put in a home, and simply "kill time" all the while they rot. Look at cultures where the elderly are still needed and for lack of a better word, still work. People will still go senile when they have strokes, Alzheimer, and syphilis finally kicks in, but it doesn't mean that everyone that gets old gets stupid.

Re:What exactly is slowed?

[mark-t]

The only reason most of the elderly are not "firing on all mental cylinders" by age 70 is because they haven't needed to... and their mental abilities are atrophying because they haven't had reason to push themselves beyond what they may already know and are comfortable with.

Re:What exactly is slowed?

[rsborg]

What's the gain in living to be 150 if your brain stops functioning at any sort of useful level at age 70?

Who cares? (devil's advocate) Massive market potential for the pharma industry - esp if the 100+ crowd are relatively weathly or government is willing to pay medicare costs for them... easy to think like a post-human "health" industry CxO.

Re:What exactly is slowed?

[moteyalpha]

I think you totally missed the point, it is to prolong the life of yeast so that it can make twice as much beer because who wants to live when the beer is gone anyway? :)

Re:What exactly is slowed?

[Daniel Dvorkin]

Does this sort of thing cover both the aging of the body and the brain?

Does it cover both the aging of the body and the heart? Both the aging of the body and the liver? Both the aging of the body and the third toe on the left foot?

I know what you meant, but I get really tired of people acting like the brain and the body are something separate. The brain is part of the body; a complex and unique part, to be sure, but essentially it's just another organ. So if we can slow down aging generally, most likely our brains will benefit just as much as the rest of our bodies will.

Re:What exactly is slowed?

[0111 1110]

The only reason most of the elderly are not "firing on all mental cylinders" by age 70 is because they haven't needed to

Do you need to and if so why? Does someone have a gun to your head making you solve tensor calculus equations or something?

Re:What exactly is slowed?

[Anonymous Coward]

but most are not

Wow how arrogant...

Judging by your ad hominem attack on old people. Any other groups you want to segregate and call names? You may want to fire up ye ol brain cells first...

I have known many who are pitiful shells of their former selves (due to neural disorders they had since they were children). I also have known many who are in their 80-90s who are *extremely* smart. Do not confuse cynical with stupid. You are falling into a trap of 'they do not agree with me so they must be stupid'. Careful where that takes you. You will end up being a cynic who judges others by how smart you perceive them to be.

Yes

[the eric conspiracy]

.... because people's brains are just like baker's yeast.

Or is it that most people's brains seem to function like they are made up of baker's yeast?

Anyway 50% more of that doesn't sound particularly wonderful.

Re:Yes

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless you sell Vagisil.

Re:Yes

[LordWabbit2]

Stop insulting baker's years!

Oh, good...

[interval1066]

...more time on the planet with Honey Boo Boo & family.

Re:Oh, good...

[Anonymous Coward]

Feel free to leave any time you wamt to.

Just go fasrer

[rossdee]

much faster

Like .99999 c

Prepare to work forever

[Anonymous Coward]

And never retire. Anti-aging drugs are great and all, but what about the effects on society? Every country in the world has had their life expectancy vastly increase in the past hundred years, ot the point where there's potentially not enough people feeding the system to take care of the non-workers. Japan's average age of it's population is 44. Germany is about 42. Most of Europe is in the early 40's. Only the US in the developed world has a population that is getting younger, and that's primarily due to immigration.

If people start work at 20 or so, and retire at 65, and then die at 130? No. We can't sustain that.

Re:Prepare to work forever

[mark-t]

If you are healthy enough for a longer period, what's so awful about working longer, and continuing to contribute usefully to society?

Re:Prepare to work forever

[Anonymous Coward]

There are too kids who don't want to extend life: young people who think grandpa is sucking up their oxygen, grandpa if her life currently sucks, and grandpa's kids, who don't want their life to suck like grandpa's does--actually or only imagined.

Anybody else who can think independently instead of extrapolating from their immediate experience is ready and waiting for life extension. We don't presume that life extension means being connected to a bunch of equipment, drooling, incoherent, and in extreme pain, while the Guinness World Records representative grips his stop watch.

People forget the most important reason..

[t0qer]

Forget vanity, we need to stop aging for one simple reason...

Space Travel

We still haven't created engines that can go 1/10th light speed. So even at best, a 40 light year trip to Alpha Centari will take 400 years even at that speed. OK forget other solar systems, just colonizing mars is going to require us to get the most out of the humans lifetimes we send there.

Re:People forget the most important reason..

[Anonymous Coward]

You have some serious navigation issues if you travel 40 light years to reach a star that is 4 light years away...

Re:People forget the most important reason..

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what happens when you take the scenic route. You're going to die before you reach your destination, so might as well detour to someplace you can look at. What do you care if the total times takes a few extra generations? They won't know the difference.

Re:People forget the most important reason..

[pr100]

I'm no expert on space travel, but surely we have invented engines capable of going more than 1/10th of light speed? An engine will continue to accelerate a spacecraft so long as it still has fuel... all it takes is time to get above any given speed below the speed of light.

Re:People forget the most important reason..

[0111 1110]

I'm no expert on space travel

That is becoming clear.

but surely we have invented engines capable of going more than 1/10th of light speed?

The problem is the lack of fuel or alternatively the impractically large size and mass of the fuel necessary to accelerate to a useful speed. So effectively we have not. The best we can do with curent tech is probably less than 0.1c and we are talking very, very large numbers of nuclear bombs and kilometer scale ships. Of course nuclear pulse ships might scale upward such that a 100 kilometer ship is capable of 0.25c etc but since we haven't yet manufactured even one it's hard to know.

Yeast consultant

[Empiric]

Jesus said, "The kingdom of the father is like a certain woman. She took a little leaven, concealed it in some dough, and made it into large loaves. Let him who has ears hear."

--Thomas

Now they just need to find that "certain woman"...

This is like 10 years old?

[Anonymous Coward]

I read about this many years ago where bread (or rather yeast) could last significantly longer. I don't mean by a few days either, I mean a loaf of bread wouldn't expire before a few months. I swear I read it on /. So what's different between this and that? I feel like they are just reviving old research like they keep doing with regrowing teeth/bone technology. It's been around forever but every year there's "breaking development" which is the same as the last year.

Does this mean

[Mister Liberty]

people will in the future die at 17?

two liters of wine a day doesnt work???

[peter303]

I was working on that megadose of natural reservatol.

The most important question...

[Anonymous Coward]

Will my HMO cover it?

Unintended side effect

[Anonymous Coward]

Cells not dying is called cancer. Cells are designed to die after a certain number of divisions, determined by cell type. 50 may be the average. This is one area of medical research that the wealthy are welcome to work out the kinks until the costs come down or they die off, which every comes first.

Will keep this in mind next time I bud offspring

[WillAffleckUW]

The main problem is not physical aging per se, but the affects of aging themselves.

I have seen some mouse research that might extend lifespan, but if you can't use your brain for those extra 20-40 years, it's not going to do you much good.

Re:What about prison for some a life sentence shou

[Anonymous Coward]

What about prison for some a life sentence is to shout and we can get a lot of labor out of inmates

Oh look, it's Joe_Dwaggon with his unmistakeable brand of illiteracy and repetition via the comment subject. I suspect what he was trying to say was:

"What about prison? For some, a life sentence is too short. We could also be getting a lot of labour out of such inmates."

See, that wasn't so hard, was it? All I had to do was PROOF READ my own writing!

Aging

[Anonymous Coward]

Just not giving a crap and taking it easy in life tends to slow aging by a great deal, being really rich doesnt hurt either,
generally people who are always stressing about other peoples crap tend to break down ALOT faster.

Downside of longevity

[PhillipSmith]

My Father just had his 100th birthday, he retired 35 years ago. We age at an exponential rate with our probability of dying doubling roughly every 8 years. As an exercise I calculated how long we would live if we aged linearly. Our lifespan would be in the order of 3000 yrs. This would mean we would be old for a very long time. Your 90's could last hundreds of years. This might not be so much fun. When the retirement was set at 65, it was the mean life expectancy, this is now close to 80 which means we will more old people who will be older for longer. Slowing human ageing is not a panacea

Re:Downside of longevity

[ChrisMaple]

One of the things that break down is repair mechanisms. As more of them fail, there are fewer repair mechanisms that get fixed. This destructive feedback makes the accelerating mortality rate inevitable. "Aging linearly" is simply not possible.

A kid all the way

[jangid]

If administered from childhood, a 20 year old will behave like a 10 year old kid.

Not so sure

[Anonymous Coward]

It might prolong life in yeast, which is single-cell organism. This isn't necessarily a major factor in human aging (especially as old cells are being replaced, and there are telomeres which (I guess) could be growing in yeast - in humans this is deactivated as a mechanism against cancer.

Practical applications

[Anonymous Coward]

But will it make for better beer?

I'm 18

[gravis777]

I promise that I really am 18!

Child Actors

[Anonymous Coward]

That's all we need. Another reason for child actors to get a bad rap....

The answer a Twinkie's long shelf life

[Anonymous Coward]

Extra long life baker's yeast - the reason why Twinkies have such a long shelf life.

Zombie Yeast

[Ranbot]

I just want to be notified when scientists create zombie yeast.

Challenge Accepted!!

[RobertLTux]

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR-aqymxfVrmDVuQcXDaMpljS1I-9zIJ2MHPW0ryWYTWhxAAZTIBw

Baker's yeast - Subway

[Dabido]

One foot long vegie delight sub on age retarding bread with swiss cheese, all the salad, no sauce and no salt or pepper. No drinks or cookies either thanks, I'm just here to live longer and lose some weight.

so gf's yeast infection

[Anonymous Coward]

may never clear up?