Man has long dreamed of living forever. Pharaohs, kings, presidents used every possible means to stay forever, even in human memory. They required composing songs and verses in their honor, and their ashes were kept in majestic tombs. 
Photos from open sources Scientists have found a cure for old age? If before people often died of hunger, poverty, illness or physical abuse, now the main cause death is old age. Human well-being and level of development medicine is growing, infections are fighting more successfully, and it’s aging leads to most diseases ending death. At the same time, a large number of people live to be a hundred years old, while remaining active. It is these centenarians who are actively studied all over the world. In the next two years it is planned to “read” the genome of many of these lucky ones. George Church, a famous geneticist from Harvard (USA), believes that it is possible to extend not just itself life, and youth. This will help a new science – synthetic biology. A cure for old age may require a change the genome of a particular person.
Death is not afraid of them!
Useful ideas for such an intervention should be addressed. to the best examples in nature. Some specimens of bowhead whale survive to 120 years. These facts are confirmed by the age of harpoons, stuck in their bodies. The oldest known fish today is bright red female koi, or nishikigo (a kind of ordinary carp) named Hanako passed away at the age of 226 in interesting from the point of view of numerology day: July 7, 1977. Shellfish Arctica islandica can live more than 400 years, which determined by the annual rings of their shell, in almost frozen water, where the metabolic rate is very low.
There are organisms that do not seem to age at all. For example, hydra is a small aquatic animal similar to a cactus, – not decrepit and can be considered biologically immortal. A jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula even becomes younger over time. She can of adult stage (actually jellyfish) to return to an earlier – polyp stage. The entire population of these organisms is capable of doing such a trick constantly, avoiding biological death from aging, although some of its members may die from the teeth of predators and diseases.
Such inspirational examples of longevity or even immortality in the natural world suggest thoughts about man. We, like organisms described above are composed of living cells. And some of these cells can also be immortal.
On a right way
Photo from open sources Jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula gets younger over time
Among cytologists around the world, HeLa cell culture is known, which grows in laboratory conditions and is used in experimental research for many years. Where is she from appeared? African American Henrietta Lax passed away on October 4, 1951 years from cervical cancer at the age of 31 years. Tumor cells of this patients were selected for scientific purposes. Now they are called HeLa – by the first letters of her name and surname. It turned out that cells can easy to grow and share in an artificial environment – in glass laboratory glassware – indefinitely. Descendants of the original cultures are alive and now, more than 60 years after their extraction from a tumor. But they are so changed compared to normal cells that cannot be directly used as a model immortality of the human body, however, their study Undoubtedly lead scientists on the right path.
Cloning or stem cells?
Scientists have already managed to clone more than 20 species of animals. it mice, carps, sheep, monkeys, cows, horses, cats, dogs. The cloning of living organisms is often called dangerous and unethical. But new scientific thought has always struggled its way. Let us recall at least in vitro fertilization, which At first it was forbidden, and now it is widely and successfully used.
Currently, the main argument against cloning person is a high probability of being born is not quite healthy people. Cloned animals get sick and die more before their ordinary counterparts. However scientists continue stubbornly work, and soon the chances of an error when cloning will be less than with conventional reproduction. Then it’s already possible not to afraid to order your exact copy and thus achieve immortality.
True, humanity has its hopes not only in cloning. What about embryonic stem cells? Isn’t this a miracle? Of they can receive any other cells of the body and use them for the treatment of various diseases and rejuvenation of not only the skin of the face and neck, but the whole body.
Synthetic biology in the near future will be able to overcome many natural limitations to longevity. Medical scientists will repair damaged tissues and direct their growth, grow brain cells that will bind to electronic devices and transmit signals to them in case of danger, regardless from human condition. It will be possible to control the growth of neurons for improve memory and treat senile dementia.
The path to semi-immortality
Photos from open sources Mollusk Arctica islandica can live more than 400 years
So, in the next 10-20 years, humanity will come much closer to immortality. Or until semi-immortality, that is, it will live much longer. What will it look like? More Thomas Malthus (English economist and priest), who passed away in 1834, in his book “Experience on the Law of Population” he wrote that humanity is strictly limited by means of subsistence. He also believed that population is growing exponentially, and means of subsistence – in arithmetic. Now instead Malthus’s predicted universal hunger and poverty we are seeing widespread improvement of people’s health, growth of their well-being and increase in life expectancy. For example, American economist Julian Simon, well known for work on issues population, immigration and natural resources in their writings expresses an optimistic view of the future of mankind. is he believes that limited and likely depletion will overcome thanks to human ingenuity, substitutes natural resources and technological progress. Apparently, we are not hungry threatens. People will become resistant to viral and bacterial infections, all forms of cancer, autoimmune diseases, and even radiation, which is very useful for space exploration space. All this will be achieved through implementation in the human genome sequences from organisms that are already have such abilities. Resistance to irradiation is possible borrow, for example, from Bdelloid rotifer – a small megadose-tolerant invertebrate creature radiation. The study of the genomes of long-livers options for achieving immortality.
Irina BAKHLANOVA
Life Time Pharaohs
