Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Anti-Aging Drug Research Is Taking Too Long
Anti-aging drugs that target mitochondria in hopes of eliminating the problem of aging seem to all have an interesting side effect. Test animals live longer, all right; and at the end, it's over quickly. I just want them to hurry up and start giving me some of the science-fictional options I've been reading about my whole life.
Mitochondria provide our bodies with chemical energy. They accumulate damage over time, causing tissues and cells to break down. Early work on drugs that boost mitochondria in lab animals shows that it can extend longevity and halt diseases like cancer and diabetes. But the lab animals tend to die quickly and inexplicably at the end.
SF authors have been fantasizing about what anti-aging treatments would be like; this possible future has been imagined by Robert Heinlein in his 1941 novel Methuselah's Children.
Other imagined futures (why must they always have a flaw?); Kurt Vonnegut wrote about anti-gerasone in his well-known short story Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Anti-gerasone's flaw was that it worked too well - neither material goods nore inheritance laws could keep up.
In A World Out Of Time, Larry Niven writes about a drug called young-forever, which puts off death almost forever. Unfortunately, it works only with children, who then never go through puberty.
In This Immortal, Roger Zelazny refers to the Sprung-Samser treatments, which confer a measure of longer life, but which are only used after the subject has aged, due to potential side-effects.
And don't forget the anti-agathics from James Blish's excellent series Cities in Flight.
Story via Wired.
"They die of natural death ....probably their heart stops to beat!" wrote Washington University School of Medicine caloric restriction pioneer Luigi Fontana of the rodents in his and other studies, which betray little evidence of the histopathological lesions -- tissue and organ damage or abnormality -- mentioned by Bartke. "The animal drops dead and we cannot really know why.... One expanation is the failure of the electrical conductive system of the heart because of metabolic alterations.... No pain, no suffering, no medical and social cost for society!"
"What it adds up to is that, for
members of the Families, senility is postponed and that senescence can be arrested at least
cosmetically." She brooded for a moment. "Once they thought they were on the track of the secret of
immortality, the true Fountain of Youth. But it was a mistake. Senility is simply postponed . . . and
shortened. About ninety days from the first clear warning-then death from old age." She shivered. "Of
course, most of our cousins don't wait-a couple of weeks to make certain of the diagnosis, then
euthanasia."
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 12/25/2007)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Medical ")
3D Printed Organs From Space
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
Health Kiosk Has No Human Doctor
'The electronic body analyzer had been developed...' - Michael Crichton, 1969.
NEO Brain Computer Interface (BCI)
'The remains of the lace took on the rough shape of a brain...' - Iain Banks, 2010.
MIT Computerized Bionic Leg Is Part Of The User
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain, through the mediation of the electronic brain in the leg.' - Charles Recour, 1949.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
'If Anyone Is Watching Earth...'
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
Epirus High-Power Microwave Defeats Drones
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
Cloud Of Space Rubbish From China's Long March Rocket
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
Biomimetic Tendons From Rochu Robotics
'... the curious parallelism to animal motions.'
Living Human Neuron Biological Compute Rack
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
Martha Stewart Approves Ojai 'Living Room On Wheels'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
ESA's Draco To Study Heat Of Reentry
'...a synthetic which air-friction would erode.'
Buy A Galaxy? Maybe Start Smaller
'The sky is the limit' just got higher.
The United States Space Academy Is Official
'Is our orbit to Space Academy clear?'
Is There A Global Problem With Who Is Having Children?
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
You Will Eat The Cookies Made From Plastic...
'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
It's A Giant Robot! You Reporters Have Been Warned!
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
Birds Learn To Sing Pictures ala Frank Herbert's Distrans
'We will fight in the time of fighting.'
ElectionSim: China's 'Ender's Game' Battle Sim, Or Lem's 'Kingdom In A Box'?
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
Flock Stymied By 'Adversarial Fashion'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
