Will we ever be able to live forever?

[L00fah100]

Apart from accidents, murder and suicide could the human body go on and on if we were able to find a way to constantly regenerate cells all over the body?

I can remember reading an interesting article where scientists were looking into a kind of organism which was said to be almost able to live forever, i think it was a worm, coral or bacteria though i'm not sure.

So again if we could regenerate every cell in our bodies would we be able to live forever? Where would cancers fit into this?

[jno]

we could, I suppose, though I don't know whether we'd want to. Cells start turning themselves off after childbearing age, broadly speaking, as our genes no longer have any use for us: we've passed the genes on, and that's all the genes are interested in.

Cancer would fit in the same way as falling under a bus does: you can still die if things go wrong.

[chakka35]

I'll let you know in due course.

[jake-the-peg]

Your cells have things called Telomers that terminate the cromosomes.

These get shorter each time a cell divides until they get too short and the cell dies.

http://learn.genetics...gin/traits/telomeres/

It's thought this is a key factor to ageing - the fuse we all live with.

There are currently 12,000 people in the UK over 100

in 2011 there were 83 over 110 *in the whole world*

That should tell you that there's a biological limit.

"Fixing" that problem probably involves fixing the telomere issue but it's difficult to know what would happen if you could, as you'd be upsetting a fundamental piece of adaptation in the cell.

A bit like tinkering with a formula one engine on the basis of GCSE mechanics

[maggiebee]

As Queen sang "Who Wants to Live Forever"

[starone]

No, and I don't think I would want to, except it might be interesting to see what happens in the future with reference to new inventions, discoveries, perhaps visiting other planets (not for me, I get giddy looking down from upstairs) but it would be interesting. This planet would get a bit overcrowded if we all wanted to live for ever. As it is we can't even keep the people existing now for longer than about a hundred years, if you are lucky, or unlucky depending on your point of view.

[pdq1]

When Dolly the sheep was born it took over the age of its parent about 6 years old. If you took someone else's organ into your body heart, kidney etc the cells would also have a limited life span.

If stem cells or cells from a foetus were introduced into your body those cells could start anew giving you a possibly longer life. However to replace all the cells in your body would be out of the question and you would be existing with a patched up body, some thriving and others reaching the end of their life. it would be like fitting a new engine into your rusting bodywork.

[New Judge]

But the question that needs to be asked is "How will we ever know?"

[LazyGun]

Lots of large biological problems and hurdles to overcome if we are to extend life expectancy any further.

The aging process itself - a whole slew of processes going on that we need to fully understand and then be able to manipulate, ranging from oncogenes through to, as JTP pointed out, Telomere length. Every time there is a cell division, the telemore length shortens, implying a finite number of cell divisions available - and cell division and consequent replacement of aging cells is what would be required,

Then you have the problem of nerve cell and brain cell regeneration - not something we can do right now, unlike a starfish.

Finally, linked into the aging process and oncogenes is the onset of diseases of the elderly, most especially cancers.

So, we may be able to extend average life expectancy a little, and longevity a little more - but quality of life would become even more of an issue, I think. Living forever is probably not a good thing anyway....think how long you would have to work before you could draw your pension!

[modeller]

Some single cell organisms and micro organisms already live for ever because they divide into two which divide again to make 4 and again to make 8 and so on, so the original organism never really dies. I suppose you could argue humans never really die because human DNA goes back thousands of years and will go on for ever.
However even these processes can be disrupted, when they mutate, so although they may appear to live forever they may have changed in form.

[naomi24]

Modeller, //I suppose you could argue humans never really die because human DNA goes back thousands of years and will go on for ever. //

Wow! Big stuff! That leads us to the question of 'what are you?' - but since it's almost bedtime, time is of the essence. :o)

No, I don't think we will be able to live forever.

[thenry]

NO ! and that's a goddam fact ! Stop worrying, we're all going to die !

[Matheous-2]

For all we know, there may be a clone of everyone in an infinite number of multiverses!