Longevity Gene Found

quixote9 writes "Calorie restriction while maintaining nutrient levels has long been known to dramatically increase life spans. Very different lab animals, from worms to mice, live up to 50% longer (or even more) on the restricted diets. However, so far, nobody has been able to figure out how this works. Scientists at the Salk Institute have found a specific gene in worms (there's a very similar one in people) that is directly involved in the longevity effect. That opens up the interesting possibility that doctors may someday be able to activate that gene directly and we can live long and prosper . . . without giving up chocolate."

People demand it

[ch-chuck]

Give me immortality, or give me death!

Retirement age..

[rf0]

If we do live longer to say 150 and you retire at say 70 would you really want to spend 80 years doing nothing..

Gene sequence in hex is...

[Bob54321]

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

(That is going to hurt my karma but I am still no bored of that joke...)

(OK, maybe a little over it)

Re:Today's society

[Anonymous Coward]

Great. Like we really need the Boomer generation hanging around for another 90 years.

Re:Ponce de León still searching...

[yoprst]

Don't worry! Goverments all around the world are already working on this problem. Lower prison terms, sensible immigration policies, and humane international policies are already there. More to come...

tinfoil response

[u-bend]

How long do we really want these worms to live? Till they become sentient long-lived invertebrate overlords?

Re:Ponce de León still searching...

[Bogtha]

How is our great-grandkids' generation supposed to support millions of supercentenarians?

Won't somebody please think of the great-grandchildren!?

They all got it wrong

[aadvancedGIR]

Healthy food does not prolonge life, it just make it seem so long and boring you want to die.

Where did the funding come from?

[lar3ry]

Why do I have the feeling that this study was funded by the Ira Howard foundation?

Re:tinfoil response

[u-bend]

I was just thinking that if we work on their size too, maybe they'll start producing spice and then space exploration will start getting really interesting.

Re:CNN Did a story about this ...

[Anonymous Coward]

There was a couple on there who' daily calorie count could not exceed 640 I think it was.

Still running DOS, huh? (But who'd need more than 640 cal., anyway?)

Live long and prosperous

[coldhg]

So, can we expect long lifes like vulcans have?
Does this gene transforms our ears in pointy ones?
...

Awesome!

[azav]

Now we can have worms that live FOREVER!

Re:Who would want to live forever?

[tomhudson]

3 men in an old-age home were comparing notes.

The 70-year-old said that he needs to go to the toilet first thing in the morning, and it takes him 10 minutes just to get out of bed, and another half-hour in the can, so he has to get up at 6:30 if he's going to make it for breakfast at 7:00

The 80-year-old said "You think that's bad? It takes me half an hour to get out of bed, and an HOUR in the toilet, so I have to get up at 5:30 in the morning if I'm going to eat breakfast at 7:00. Heck, I have to take half a viagra so I don't end up pissing on my slippers!

The 90-year-old says "You young'uns ... I wake up at 6:55, have a piss, take a shit, and I'm all done by 7:00 ... then I have breakfast, while they change my sheets."

Great....

[Wookietim]

Oh great, now George W. Bush will live forever! The survivors will envy the dead.

Re:tinfoil response

[dim5]

Relax... they still haven't found treatment for the lay-on-the-sidewalk-until-you-dry-up gene. If they get out of hand, we'll just turn a sprinkler on them.

Re:People demand it

[Mister Whirly]

I would love to be immortal, but only for a while...