So what exactly did those crazy scientists do? They bred mice with the "gene that produces the protein S6 kinase 1 (S6K1)" disabled. The effects of this are a bit extreme:
The change mimicked the effect of keeping the mice on a calorie-restricted diet. Severely restricting the diets of yeast, bacteria, mice and primates have granted these animals unnaturally long lives. For humans, however, maintaining a diet of near starvation would be difficult at best
That last part's the bad news so far, but researchers are conducting further studies particularly targeting the S6K1 protein as it seems to have a direct link to longevity in mice. There are hopes that the benefits will one day be reproduced with drugs so that we don't have to starve ourselves for longer lives and prettier looks.
But can it tweet?
ReplyDeleteThats intense stuff... damn.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell? Who thinks of this stuff?
ReplyDeleteI like where this is going!
ReplyDeleteWow, that is amazing.
ReplyDelete16 Years extended life? That means they'll probably want to raise the retirement age to 80 to try and compensate.... bastards.
ReplyDeletebut which type of years does it add, 16 more years of alzheimers and nobody cares, but 16 more years of my 20's count me in
ReplyDeletewow, bet till we're old they can make us live forever :D
ReplyDeletefollowing
Wow, that's a considerable increase. Maximum age is one of the few things that hasn't really changed about people through evolution. (older people don't breed, no matter what the internet tells you). The only way we'll increase our max age is through genetic tampering, and I'm all for it.
ReplyDelete