Google says humans could live for 500 YEARS - and is investing in firms hoping to extend our lives five-fold
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In an interview with Bloomberg, Google Ventures' president Bill Maris (pictured) said he thinks it's possible for humans to live to 500 years old
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Mr Maris founded Google Ventures in 2009 and helped develop Google’s Calico project - a research and development company set up in 2013 to tackle 'ageing and associated diseases' (website pictured). Google co-founder Larry Page said it would focus on 'health, wellbeing and longevity'
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Google's director of engineering, Ray Kurzweil (pictured), previously said that in just over 30 years, humans will be able to upload their entire minds to computers and become digitally immortal - an event called singularity. He believes biological parts of our body will be replaced with mechanical parts as early as 2100.
He referred to Moore's Law that states the power of computing doubles, on average, every two years quoting the developments from genetic sequencing and 3D printing.
In Kurweil's book, The Singularity Is Near, he plots this development and journey towards singularity in a graph.
This singularity is also referred to as digital immortality because brains and a person's intelligence will be digitally stored forever, even after they die.
He also added that this will be possible through neural engineering and referenced the recent strides made towards modeling the brain and technologies which can replace biological functions.
Examples of such technology include the cochlear implant - an implant that is attached to the brain's cochlear nerve and electronically stimulates it to restore hearing to someone who is deaf.
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Mr Kurzweil referred to Moore's Law that states the power of computing doubles, on average, every two years quoting developments from genetic sequencing to 3D printing. This puts us on course for singularity by 2045. In his book, The Singularity Is Near, he plots this development and journey towards singularity in a graph
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Dr Pankaj Kapahi from the Buck Institute for Research On Ageing agrees that scientific breakthroughs could extend human lives dramatically. He made these claims after tweaking genetic pathways in a Caenorhabditis elegans worm (stock image), which successfully boosted the creature's lifespan by a factor of five
Other examples include technology that can restore motor skills after the nervous system is damaged.
And other experts are in agreement with both Mr Maris and Mr Kurzweil.
Dr Pankaj Kapahi from the Buck Institute for Research On Ageing believes that scientific breakthroughs could potential extend human lives dramatically, by four or five fold.
He made these claims after tweaking two genetic pathways in the lab worm Caenorhabditis elegans, which successfully boosted the creature's lifespan by a factor of five.
IS 120-YEARS-OLD THE UPPER LIMIT OF HUMAN LIFESPAN?
Mr Maris' claims contradict those made recently at a gerontology conference by Professor Sir Colin Blakemore.
Sir Blakemore, a neurobiologist and former chief executive of the British Medical Research Council, said there is a ceiling on how long humans can live, and how much the body can age.
And he stated that that 120 years ‘might be a real absolute limit to human lifespan.’
He added people living for longer than 120 years is ‘so rarely exceeded’ that, even with medical and technological advances, it is unlikely this upper threshold will be raised.
The comments were made at an event with a panel of gerontologists and scientists where they discussed the future of medicine, global health concerns and life expectancy.
It agreed that medicines will have a limited effect on extending human life, and it was more important to improve the health and quality of life for older people, rather than prolonging it.
The panel also stated it was key to improve the life expectancy in poorer regions, or areas where people typically die much younger than other areas.
While it could take years of research to extend humans’ lives in the same way, the study raises the prospect of anti-ageing treatments informed by genetic interactions, according to Dr Kapahi.
C. elegans, a type of worm, was the first animal to have its whole genome, or genetic code, mapped, and has been widely used in studies of ageing and lifespan.
The research, reported in the journal Cell Reports, involved blocking key molecules that affect the action of insulin and a nutrient signalling pathway called Target of Rapamycin (TOR).
Single mutations in the TOR pathway were known to extend the lifespan of C. elegans by 30 per cent, while insulin-signalling mutations could double the amount of time they lived.
Adding the two together might have been expected to extend longevity by 130 per cent, but the combined impact turned out to be much greater.
The research may explain why it has proved so difficult to identify single genes responsible for the long lives enjoyed by human centenarians.
‘It's quite probable that interactions between genes are critical in those fortunate enough to live very long, healthy lives,’ said Dr Kapahi.
Future research is expected to use mice to see if the same effects occur in mammals.
‘The idea would be to use mice genetically engineered to have suppressed insulin signalling and then treat them with the drug rapamycin, which is well-known to suppress the TOR pathway,’ Dr Kapahi said.
But these claims contradict those made more recently at a gerontology conference by Professor Sir Colin Blakemore.
+7
But these claims contradict those made by Professor Sir Colin Blakemore. The neurobiologist (pictured) believes 120 years ‘might be the limit to human lifespan’ because living for longer is ‘so rarely exceeded’ that even with medical advances, it is unlikely this upper threshold will be raised
+7
The 2014 Global AgeWatch Index recently stated that by 2050, the number of over 60s will be 21 per cent of the global population.This is almost double the current figure of 12 per cent. The proportion of over-80s is growing fastest, too projected to rise from two per cent now to four per cent of the global population by 2050
Sir Blakemore, a neurobiologist and former chief executive of the British Medical Research Council, said there is a ceiling on how long humans can live, and how much the body can age - and he stated that that 120 years ‘might be a real absolute limit to human lifespan.’
THE RISE OF CENTENARIANS
The number of people living to 100 in the UK has increased by 71 per cent in the last ten years, and has shot up more than five-fold since the Eighties.
There are now more than half a million people aged 90 and above living in this country, with nearly 14,000 of them aged more than 100, compared to just 2,500 in 1980.
There are also 710 people who have lived beyond their 105th birthday, up from 340 ten years ago.
Data released by the Office for National Statistics also showed life expectancy has increased again, with the gap between the sexes continuing to close.
Men born this year can expect to live to 78, while women will reach 82 on average. That is compared to just 70 for men born between 1980 and 1982, and 76 for women
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ing-extend-lives-five-fold.html#ixzz3XSoSC9qm
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
- Google Ventures' Bill Maris said he thinks humans can live to 500 years old
- Could humans live to 500 years old? Scientists believe genetic tweaks could significantly extend our lifespan
- Californian scientists tweaked two genetic pathways in the worm Caenorhabditis elegans to amplify its lifespan
- They said the worms lived to the human equivalent of 400 to 500 years
- Research raises the prospect of anti-ageing treatments based on genetic interactions, and the next step is to investigate if the effects occur in mice
- This will be due to medical breakthroughs and a rise in biomechanics
- Google's director of engineering Ray Kurzweil previously said we'd be uploading our brains to machines by 2045
- SHARE PICTURE
+7
In an interview with Bloomberg, Google Ventures' president Bill Maris (pictured) said he thinks it's possible for humans to live to 500 years old
+7
Mr Maris founded Google Ventures in 2009 and helped develop Google’s Calico project - a research and development company set up in 2013 to tackle 'ageing and associated diseases' (website pictured). Google co-founder Larry Page said it would focus on 'health, wellbeing and longevity'
+7
Google's director of engineering, Ray Kurzweil (pictured), previously said that in just over 30 years, humans will be able to upload their entire minds to computers and become digitally immortal - an event called singularity. He believes biological parts of our body will be replaced with mechanical parts as early as 2100.
He referred to Moore's Law that states the power of computing doubles, on average, every two years quoting the developments from genetic sequencing and 3D printing.
In Kurweil's book, The Singularity Is Near, he plots this development and journey towards singularity in a graph.
This singularity is also referred to as digital immortality because brains and a person's intelligence will be digitally stored forever, even after they die.
He also added that this will be possible through neural engineering and referenced the recent strides made towards modeling the brain and technologies which can replace biological functions.
Examples of such technology include the cochlear implant - an implant that is attached to the brain's cochlear nerve and electronically stimulates it to restore hearing to someone who is deaf.
+7
Mr Kurzweil referred to Moore's Law that states the power of computing doubles, on average, every two years quoting developments from genetic sequencing to 3D printing. This puts us on course for singularity by 2045. In his book, The Singularity Is Near, he plots this development and journey towards singularity in a graph
+7
Dr Pankaj Kapahi from the Buck Institute for Research On Ageing agrees that scientific breakthroughs could extend human lives dramatically. He made these claims after tweaking genetic pathways in a Caenorhabditis elegans worm (stock image), which successfully boosted the creature's lifespan by a factor of five
Other examples include technology that can restore motor skills after the nervous system is damaged.
And other experts are in agreement with both Mr Maris and Mr Kurzweil.
Dr Pankaj Kapahi from the Buck Institute for Research On Ageing believes that scientific breakthroughs could potential extend human lives dramatically, by four or five fold.
He made these claims after tweaking two genetic pathways in the lab worm Caenorhabditis elegans, which successfully boosted the creature's lifespan by a factor of five.
IS 120-YEARS-OLD THE UPPER LIMIT OF HUMAN LIFESPAN?
Mr Maris' claims contradict those made recently at a gerontology conference by Professor Sir Colin Blakemore.
Sir Blakemore, a neurobiologist and former chief executive of the British Medical Research Council, said there is a ceiling on how long humans can live, and how much the body can age.
And he stated that that 120 years ‘might be a real absolute limit to human lifespan.’
He added people living for longer than 120 years is ‘so rarely exceeded’ that, even with medical and technological advances, it is unlikely this upper threshold will be raised.
The comments were made at an event with a panel of gerontologists and scientists where they discussed the future of medicine, global health concerns and life expectancy.
It agreed that medicines will have a limited effect on extending human life, and it was more important to improve the health and quality of life for older people, rather than prolonging it.
The panel also stated it was key to improve the life expectancy in poorer regions, or areas where people typically die much younger than other areas.
While it could take years of research to extend humans’ lives in the same way, the study raises the prospect of anti-ageing treatments informed by genetic interactions, according to Dr Kapahi.
C. elegans, a type of worm, was the first animal to have its whole genome, or genetic code, mapped, and has been widely used in studies of ageing and lifespan.
The research, reported in the journal Cell Reports, involved blocking key molecules that affect the action of insulin and a nutrient signalling pathway called Target of Rapamycin (TOR).
Single mutations in the TOR pathway were known to extend the lifespan of C. elegans by 30 per cent, while insulin-signalling mutations could double the amount of time they lived.
Adding the two together might have been expected to extend longevity by 130 per cent, but the combined impact turned out to be much greater.
The research may explain why it has proved so difficult to identify single genes responsible for the long lives enjoyed by human centenarians.
‘It's quite probable that interactions between genes are critical in those fortunate enough to live very long, healthy lives,’ said Dr Kapahi.
Future research is expected to use mice to see if the same effects occur in mammals.
‘The idea would be to use mice genetically engineered to have suppressed insulin signalling and then treat them with the drug rapamycin, which is well-known to suppress the TOR pathway,’ Dr Kapahi said.
But these claims contradict those made more recently at a gerontology conference by Professor Sir Colin Blakemore.
+7
But these claims contradict those made by Professor Sir Colin Blakemore. The neurobiologist (pictured) believes 120 years ‘might be the limit to human lifespan’ because living for longer is ‘so rarely exceeded’ that even with medical advances, it is unlikely this upper threshold will be raised
+7
The 2014 Global AgeWatch Index recently stated that by 2050, the number of over 60s will be 21 per cent of the global population.This is almost double the current figure of 12 per cent. The proportion of over-80s is growing fastest, too projected to rise from two per cent now to four per cent of the global population by 2050
Sir Blakemore, a neurobiologist and former chief executive of the British Medical Research Council, said there is a ceiling on how long humans can live, and how much the body can age - and he stated that that 120 years ‘might be a real absolute limit to human lifespan.’
THE RISE OF CENTENARIANS
The number of people living to 100 in the UK has increased by 71 per cent in the last ten years, and has shot up more than five-fold since the Eighties.
There are now more than half a million people aged 90 and above living in this country, with nearly 14,000 of them aged more than 100, compared to just 2,500 in 1980.
There are also 710 people who have lived beyond their 105th birthday, up from 340 ten years ago.
Data released by the Office for National Statistics also showed life expectancy has increased again, with the gap between the sexes continuing to close.
Men born this year can expect to live to 78, while women will reach 82 on average. That is compared to just 70 for men born between 1980 and 1982, and 76 for women
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ing-extend-lives-five-fold.html#ixzz3XSoSC9qm
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
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