• Question: How long can the human life span be extended?

    Asked by sodiumpolyacrylate to David, James, Mike, Suze, Will on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Mike Dodd

      Mike Dodd answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Hey sodiumpolyacrylate, you’ve been very busy with some interesting questions 🙂
      There is a lot of debate about this subject at the moment. There is a scientist called Audrey de gray, who thinks that the first 1000 year old person has been born. He says that it is just a matter of finding what makes you age and stopping it. He thinks that in our life time, they will solve the “disease” of ageing. I don’t think this will happen. Ageing is very complicated and is a natural part of being human. I think that we will only be able to extend human life by another 20 years. The older you get, the more worn out your body becomes. Things like heart disease, stroke and even the simple cold become more common and will more likely cause you death. There are very few people that live to a hundred, but they are increasing. I think that we will see a 120 year old, but I don’t think they will be very healthy. Unless there is so amazing discovery in how to prevent ageing!

    • Photo: James Marrow

      James Marrow answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      One of the important issues with this is not just how long we might live, but what quality of life we will have in that time. I’d not be very happy to live to 120 if I had lost mobility and mental health by the time I was 80 or 90. I agree with Suze, most people seem to think that 120 is quite possible and that we could manage a good degree of health until quite close to that. It might be expensive, however, and we could also have to look very seriously at when we retire or what we mean by retirement. People used to not live very long after retiring at 60-65, but for most people now this is quite a young age!

    • Photo: Suze Kundu

      Suze Kundu answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I have absolutely no idea! People have been wondering this for centuries. There was this so-called elixir of life, or the Philosopher’s Stone (as featured in Harry Potter!), which was said to give you the gift of eternal life. Alchemists (chemists without the risk assessment forms) tried for years and years to try and make this potion, and also to turn normal rocks into gold (I guess to make some money on the side, since they weren’t working as they were busy playing with their chemicals…?), but they never found it.

      Unless someone did make it, but they’re keeping it to themselves.

      Anyway, another good question, my favourite chemistry friend!

    • Photo: William Eborall

      William Eborall answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      The length of human life is a strange thing.

      In simple species such as yeast and worms and even more complicated animals like mice we’ve been able to increase their life span by ~30% by simply feeding them less or altering their DNA in quite simple ways. But when these techniques are tried on humans (or human cells in the lab) they don’t extend our lives in any measurable way.

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