Posted on 02/07/2002 6:19:20 AM PST by Starmaker
Question:
Who wants to live forever?
Answer:
A lot of people do.
Recently, scientists found something that may help. It won't grant anyone immortality, but it may begin to unravel some of the many mysteries of aging.
In Iceland, scientists have identified a small, mysterious stretch of DNA, a stretch of DNA with unusual effects. They have named it the Methuselah Gene.
The namesake for the gene was, of course, the Biblical Methuselah. A descendant of Adam and Eves son Seth, he is said to have lived for over nine hundred years. These days, people don't live nearly as long. There is a British woman whose age is authenticated at 113, and there was a French woman who lived for 122 long years.
However, humans living past the century mark are rare. Humans wanting to live that long are quite common, thus the excitement over the Methuselah gene.
It is being researched right now by the Icelandic biotechnology firm, DeCode Genetics. The firm´s CEO, Kari Stefansson, spoke about exploring the gene´s potential.
“There is no reason why we cannot do this,” said Stefansson, “We know the location of this gene. Soon we will study its exact DNA sequence and work out how it works in the body. You can then think of making drugs that could replicate its action.”
The gene was found by company researchers who traced birth and death records in Iceland. These records are unique, and trace back to the era of Viking eminence in that corner of the world. They allowed researchers to compare and contract Icelandic citizens who had lived for nine decades or longer.
A possibility was advanced: would 1200 Icelanders with an unusually long life span have something genetically in common with one another? Something which was not shared with a “control” group of 1200 shorter-lived Icelanders with comparable lifestyles?
The possibility was advanced. It had two subordinate postulates: the long-lived group might lack genes which predisposed others to potentially life-shortening medical conditions...or they might have a single gene which, for reasons which have as yet only been speculated on, extended the life of those lucky enough to have it.
DeCode researchers began their search for interesting genes in the genetic material of long-lived Icelanders.
“We simply did not know, until we studied our markers, and to our surprise found that old age behaved as if it was being conferred by a simple, single gene,” said DeCode CEO Stefansson. “Somehow this gene is making a protein in the body that is helping people live to ripe old ages.”
They had wondered if this could be possible. They had speculated on the possibility of such a gene. Now, they have found it.
What next? Are there other genes, more potent still then Methuselah? What mysteries in the DNA code have yet to be unraveled? And what do they have to offer to the future of humanity?
Someone, a long time ago, wrote something very complex and beautiful in genetic letters.
Slowly, one letter by one letter, we are beginning to read it. We could spend our lives, perhaps, reading it with out ever expending it all. Then again, that depends on how long are lives on Earth turn out to be.
Who wants to live forever? After all these years, it´s still an interesting question.
Like most people, I wouldn't mind taking my chances ;)
OTOH, I keep picturing those things from "Gulliver's Travels" - the people that lived forever, but continued aging nonetheless, such that living forever was much worse than death. IMO, what most people want is not to live forever, but to be young forever...
It has been written that he looked like Helen Thomas.
On the premises of survival of the fittest, hell no! Let the other moral idiot die for future generations...you can spread a whole lotta seed in 900 years.
But without the pleasant personality/senility exhibited by Thomas. :-)
May you live forever.
I do not want to live forever, W.
I come from a line line of folks who are basically healthy to age 90. My parents are both mid-90s and are starting to decline, but they are not in nursing homes.
Living to 90 or more without having cancer or heart disease is realistic and desirable.
Not me.
To live is Christ, to die is gain.
Shalom.
Lockean society is set along the lines of cowards, and science services Lockean societies.
My favorite sentence in this piece.
I don't think I would want to live forever. If we knew we had forever, we would put off living. As long as we have no guarantee of tomorrow or next year, it helps motivate us to life a joyful life and take care of business. I figure I'll die at 74, give or take a few years. (everyone else in my family dies at that age). That means I have 41 more years to make the best of things, live right, travel and love as many people as possible.
Thanks for the ping.
I've wondered about that, but remember: Our lives today are much longer than those of average Americans of 100 years ago. Everyone's grandparents can tell (could have told) you about more than one sibling or friend who died at an early age from some disease or genetic malady that just isn't a problem today.
I know extreme safety is a faddish value in our society today, but I think it's more because Baby Boomers haven't really known privation or hardship like our Depression/WWII parents & grandparents did. If the War on Terrorism became WWIII, we could see the Generation Z grow up with quite different attitudes towards death than Boomers. "Using up one's life well" as opposed to "extending one's life at all costs", in a way.
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