How Close Are We To Catching Up With Death?

Humans have been questioning life's limits since the dawn of time. But how close are we to catching up with death?

- Cassandra Coburn

Getting older is something so natural and normal that we barely think about it. Whether we’re teenagers looking forward to the privileges that turning 18 brings, or thinking about saving for retirement, we don’t question that we will change, grow and age over the course of time. However, there's a growing body of scientific research that suggests that ageing might not be a biological inevitability after all. And the world has noticed. Silicon Valley is investing in companies which aim to solve the mysteries of ageing—and maybe sell us the cure

The human desire to halt ageing has a long and slightly ridiculous history. In the 13th century, philosopher Roger Bacon believed that the breath of young virgins or swallowing pearls could reverse the ageing process. In the late 19th century, the physician Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard, who is best known for discovering hormones, claimed to have devised a different cure. He created a concoction—which he grandly named the Brown-Séquard Elixir— made mainly of the crushed testes of unfortunate guinea pigs and dogs. He injected this into his patients to, perhaps unsurprisingly, no recorded success. Then there's the myth of the Fountain of Youth: a supposedly miraculous body of water which washed age from those fortunate enough to swim in it. There have been several supposed sightings of these waters over the centuries, driving explorers to all corners of the earth in search of it (including Juan Ponce de León, who inadvertently discovered Florida instead).