Genome Pioneer, X Prize Founder Tackle Aging 130
An anonymous reader writes "Hot on the heels of Google's spin-off company Calico, another major contender has emerged in the race to develop technologies for extending healthy human lifespan. Dr Craig Venter, who was first to map the entire human genetic code and the first to engineer a synthetic lifeform, has teamed up with founder of the X-Prize, Dr Peter Diamandis, to create Human Longevity Inc. 'Your age is your No. 1 risk factor for almost every disease,' said Dr. Venter. 'Using the combined power of our core areas of expertise—genomics, informatics, and stem cell therapies, we are tackling one of the greatest medical/scientific and societal challenges — aging and aging related diseases,' said Dr. Venter. 'Between 1910 and 2010 improvements in medicine and sanitation increased the human lifespan by 50 percent from 50 to 75 years.....our goal is to make 100-years-old the new 60,' said Diamandis."
Room for quadrillions of people in space habitats (Score:4, Informative)
And people are dying early now due to the rich-poor divide. So why not fix that now?
http://overpopulationisamyth.c... [overpopula...samyth.com]
Also, such research ignores the low-hanging fruit of better nutrition as I mention here: http://science.slashdot.org/co... [slashdot.org]
How to get healthier for most people in the Western world: https://www.drfuhrman.com/libr... [drfuhrman.com]
http://www.bluezones.com/ [bluezones.com]
http://www.motherjones.com/env... [motherjones.com]
http://www.grassrootshealth.ne... [grassrootshealth.net]
https://www.lef.org/magazine/m... [lef.org]
But it is hard to make huge profits from suggesting people live well and clean up their environment and thus prevent and cure disease... There are a lot more profits to keeping people on patented drugs by just treating chronic "conditions" or reducing the pains associated with them.
To be clear, I'm not against anti-aging research or genomics. I'm just saying, we as a society and scientific community are often ignoring the obvious well-proven paths to better health and extended life-span and diminished "frail span" for most people.
Of course, genomics also has a dark side -- the potential for customized plagues that may destroy humanity in the next few decades, like I worry about here: http://slashdot.org/comments.p... [slashdot.org]
So, I'd suggest we build healthier and more secure and equitable communities for everyone right now, before the plague potential of genomics fully emerges, in order to have the community spirit needed to deal with the dark side of such innovation.