The mother of queen Elizabeth (photo) famously lived to be over 100. Pretty amazing. However, now some scientists predict that ageing might come to an end. Geneticist Aubrey De Grey has stated that some one alive today might live as long 1000 years. That was the subject of an Oxford Debate a few years back (see link below), and de Grey’s views did not go unopposed.
There has been one fad after the other in longevity research. First eating less, then eating resveratrol, then eating pills to lengthen your telomeres, then injecting blood from adolescents. The list goes on. The most sane approach is perhaps “the Blue Zones theory” which seeks to draw life-style lessons from the world’s oldest people.
Sooner or later, however, something substantial might emerge from the enormous scientific effort that is being put into understanding what ageing is and how to remedy its effects. We are, after all, in the midst of a biological revolution in which DNA analysis, combined with computer processing, is brought to bear on every aspect of research.