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Results from the new study, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) have shown that telomerase is reactivated in normal adult cells at the latter stage of cell aging, and this activity reduces the potential for DNA damage that could lead cells to become cancerous. “This study reshapes the current understanding of telomerase’s function in normal cells,” said Kan Cao, PhD, an associate professor of cell biology and molecular genetics at UMD, who is senior author of the study. “Our work shows, for the first time, that there is a role for telomerase in adult cells beyond promoting tumor formation.


University of Maryland-led team found that telomerase, which immortalizes cancer cells, also prevents tumors and slows a key stage in normal cell death.

Age-related changes to the signals sent and received by our cells travelling via the bloodstream are one of the hallmarks of aging. A team of researchers, including Drs. Irina and Michael Conboy, has published the results of a new study suggesting that rejuvenation might be achieved by the calibration of these signals found in the blood [1].

The search for rejuvenation

The Conboys had done earlier research in joining of the circulatory systems between young and old animals, a process known as parabiosis, and they showed that tissue aging was not a one-way street and could be rapidly reversed in a matter of weeks, given access to the beneficial signaling from the younger animal [2].

This makes for a microcosm of people on the outside looking in who do not follow on a regular basis. A basic headline of living forever followed by comments of doubt or silliness and the heat death of the universe. Of the experts, I like Sinclair’s answer best.


What do hideous mall t-shirts, emo bands from the mid-aughts, and gorgeously-wrought realist novels about dissolving marriages have in common? Simply this assertion: Life Sucks. And it does suck, undoubtedly, even for the happiest and/or richest among us, not one of whom is immune from heartbreak, hemorrhoids, or getting mercilessly ridiculed online.

Still, at certain points in life’s parade of humiliation and physical decay almost all of us feel a longing—sometimes fleeting, sometimes sustained—for it to never actually end. The live-forever impulse is, we know, driving all manner of frantic, crackpot-ish behavior in the fringier corners of the tech-world; but will the nerds really pull through for us on this one? What are our actual chances, at this moment in time, of living forever? For this week’s Giz Asks, we spoke with a number of experts to find out.

It’s once again time for our customary appointment with a monthly recap of the most interesting news from the world of aging and rejuvenation research. Interviews and talks from our July conference, as well as from UA2019, are being published, and new events and initiatives are popping up around the world; slowly but steadily, the field is unquestionably picking up.

LEAF News

In its most hubristic and unquestioning form, bolstered by unapologetic and brash advanced capitalist logics, transhumanism poses myriad threats: from automation unemployment to the end of democracy, to the risk that humans will branch into different species, making questions of inequality infinitely more urgent. Even if immortality arrives it will be accompanied by crimes, wars, and accidents—as Cantona states.


Technology is on the brink of making it possible to live forever—but should we?

There are good technical reasons why prototypes use the ancient game of Zenet as the interface. Although I do not rule out alternative approaches using the underlying designs and principles, there are unique reasons to choose Zenet — the only method recorded in ancient Egypt whereby the dead and living could communicate. Notwithstanding my background in neural net and hybrid AI in game software development, especially active divination systems; Zenet is the most elegant solution to bridge the worlds (between living and dead) since the rules and objectives vary slightly between the two, and smooth transition between these perspectives can occur in real-time. An objection to Cryogenics is the dead take energy and resources from the living. By making the Zenet boxes solar powered this will not impact on resources of the living, and also will provide a more authentic experience of sun rise and solar changes, important in solar theology of Ra and in Zenet. The game concerns movement of the solar b(ark). On a pragmatic note — the range of awareness can extend just to events and moves in the Zenet game. Even this task is far from trivial using silicon technology, and I don’t envisage anything like “full resurrection” or retention of current memories and so on as feasible for some time.