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cyber threats in their tracks. Aging

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might not be inevitable. There

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are biological underpinnings to aging,

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and so researchers are investigating

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cell manipulations, transfusions of young

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blood, and chemical compounds that

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can mimic low-calorie diets. By

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Joao Moderos. In

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1997, a French woman named Jeanne Calme died

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at the age of 122. She

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was the oldest verified person, according to

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the Gerontology Research Group. Her

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daily habits included drinking a glass of port

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wine and smoking a cigarette after meals. She

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also ate 2.5 pounds of

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chocolate every week. Nobody else

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lived past 120 since she died,

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says Venki Ramakrishnan, the Nobel

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Prize-winning biologist and author of Why We Die.

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Indeed, while the number of centenarians is increasing every

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year, the number of people living past 110 is

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not. This suggests

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that maybe there's a natural limit

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to human lifespan. If

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such limit exists, it's one imposed

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by biological evolution. Evolution wants to

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make sure that your genes have

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the maximum likelihood of being passed

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on, Ramakrishnan says. It doesn't

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care about how long you live. This

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explains, for instance, why there seems to be

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a correlation between the size of animals and

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their life expectancy. In general, the larger the

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species, the longer it will live. Most

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mayflies live between one and two days. Monarch

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butterflies can live for months. Bowhead

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whales live more than 200 years. Greenland

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sharks may live for more than 500 years. If

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you're a smaller species, there's no point

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spending a lot of resources maintaining and

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repairing the body because the likelihood of

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being eaten or starved to death are

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high, says Ramakrishnan. Larger

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species, on the other hand, will have the

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advantage of more time finding mates and producing

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offspring. A few species,

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however, seem to be exempt from this rule.

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The hydra, a small freshwater animal

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with 12 tentacles, doesn't

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seem to age at all. The immortal

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jellyfish can even age backward. It

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suggests that aging is not inevitable and

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that we might be able to circumvent

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our natural limits if we alter our

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biology, Ramakrishnan says. That

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is why understanding the biological underpinnings

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of why we age and die

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is such a hot topic of

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research today. Scientists are trying to

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find out how to manipulate cellular

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aging processes, for instance, how to

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destroy senescent cells, aged cells

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that cause inflammation, or how

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to reprogram cells to revert them to

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an earlier state of development. Over

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the past decade, more than 300,000 scientific papers about

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aging have

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been published, while billions of dollars have been

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funneled into more than 700 longevity startups, including

3:56

Alto's labs, human longevity, Elysium

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Health, and... and calico. One

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of the most promising avenues of research

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involves the discovery of chemical compounds that

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can mimic the effects of a low-calorie

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diet, which is recognized as

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one of most well-established ways to slow

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down aging. One such

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compound is rapamycin, first discovered on

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the soil of Easter Island due

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to its antifungal properties. Later,

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they found out that it was

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also a potent anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory,

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Ramakrishnan says. It's also

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immunosuppressant, so it can also make

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people prone to infection and slow

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down wound healing. We

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need to find that sweet spot between not

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having the side effects and having just the

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anti-aging benefits. Longevity

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researchers are also familiar with a body

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of research that shows that young blood

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can rejuvenate old bodies, in mice at

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least. This discovery came

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about when researchers first surgically connected

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the circulatory system of a young

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and old mouse, a technique called

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parabiosis, and observed that

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this procedure slowed down the symptoms of

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aging, lengthening the lifespan of the older

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animal by 10%. Ramakrishnan

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notes that while scientists are still trying

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to identify the factors in young blood

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that caused this effect, there

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are companies that jumped the gun and

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started offering young plasma to billionaires. While

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we're waiting for all these things to happen,

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there are things we can do, Ramakrishnan notes.

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This is likely similar to the advice

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your grandparents gave you. Eat moderately, eat

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healthy diets, get enough sleep and exercise.

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It turns out that each of those affects the

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other two, so it's really a virtuous cycle. If

5:34

you do all of them at once, it works

5:36

better than any medicine on the market. It has

5:38

no side effects, and it's free. Thanks

5:42

for listening to Wired. My name is Zeke Robinson,

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and for more stories like this one, visit us

5:47

at wired.com. That's

5:55

news at wired.com/science. you