Heart disease. Cancer. Diabetes. Dementia.
Researchers spend billions of dollars every year trying to eradicate these medical scourges.
Yet even if we discover cures to these and all other chronic conditions, it won't change our ultimate prognosis: death.
"That's because you haven't stopped aging," says Jay Olshansky, PhD, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health.
But what if we could? What if we are trying to extend longevity in the wrong way? Instead of focusing on diseases, should we take aim at aging itself?
Some scientists think so. Fueled in part by a billion dollars of investor money, they are attempting to reverse-engineer your molecular biological clock. Their goal? To eliminate not merely diseases that kill people, but to prevent death itself.
Hacking the Code for Immortality
Aubrey de Grey, PhD, a biomedical gerontologist, has drawn wide attention for his belief that the first person who will live to be 1,000 years old is already among us.
He believes there's no cap on how long we can live, depending on what medicines we develop in the future.
Dr Aubrey de Grey
"The whole idea is that there would not be a limit on how long we can keep people healthy," de Grey says.
