Nicholas Kristof considers the implications of genetic engineering research into delaying the aging process.
A forward thinking article that examines the implications of medical advances in human longetivity on sentencing law.
The search for the secret of eternal life has advanced a step, after scientists claimed they had located the gene responsible for healthy old age. Icelandic biotechnologists said they had isolated the Methuselah gene, which they believe could lead to the development of drugs enabling people to live longer.
Scientists have pinpointed the Methuselah gene - a stretch of DNA that confers healthy old age on men and women - raising the prospect that researchers may one day be able to create drugs that extend human life.
Scientists issued a warning on Wednesday about the potential danger of using an enzyme to immortalize cells for research or grow tissue to treat disease. They found that telomerase, the so-called fountain of youth enzyme that helps cells live longer, is linked to a cancer-causing gene and could increase the risk of disease.
Dr. Damien Broderick considers the implications of new advances in life extension research.
One of the pleasing prospects that's ballyhooed as a future benefit of the Human Genome Project is in-creasing human longevity. The trouble with longevity is that if you go waltzing far enough down the path of long life you might find that you have merged with the highway of immortality without stopping at the weigh station of wisdom. Is that a perfectly good thing?
An excellent article from Salon that discusses current genetic engineering research focused on prolonging life. The author concludes by speculating on how immortality research will effect our politics and our environment.
Italian scientists have genetically engineered mice to live up to 35 percent longer than normal - an experiment that offers increased evidence that aging in mammals is controlled by a genetic switch.