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Asked by Dr. Luke to Hephzi, Imogen, Jen, Jennifer, Tom on 13 Mar 2015.
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Jen Machin answered on 13 Mar 2015:
Probably quite a long time! There is a big department at my university that studies what happens to people when they get old. Unfortunately when we get very old, we are more likely to get ill, and this is what causes problems for us because our bodies aren’t as strong as they were when we were young. The age we are expected to live to is getting higher and higher though, because we are getting better at treating or curing these illnesses!
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Imogen Napper answered on 13 Mar 2015:
Great answer Jen!
Plus if we were immortal, with the population growing, the population would get so big that we would start running out of resources and space!
There needs to be a balance :).
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Thomas Barrett answered on 13 Mar 2015:
Interesting question and life extension is quite a big science.
There is a jellyfish that we have discovered that is ‘immortal’. and we are studying this at the moment. Basically it reverts back to a baby version of itself when it gets old and lives another life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_dohrniiWe have shown with medicine that we can help people live longer with treatments and surgery but more recently we have been able to show that diet is also very important. Eating properly can help you live longer.
In terms of being immortal it also depends on what you mean. If we cloned you would you say you were immortal? We have shown we can clone animals (dolly the sheep) but human cloning is ethically questionable.
People have considered ‘uploading’ your brain to the a computer. The recent film Transcendence shows this but we are quite a way off as the brain stores so much stuff!
On balance I say we are quite a long way off but we have begun to work out how to reverse the aging process on a cellular level.
Fun fact. Scientists have predicted that the first person to live to 200 is already alive today. It could be you! 🙂
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