Immortality is real

Humanity has been trying to solve the riddle of death, probably from the very moment people began to think. Philosophers, scientists, esotericists, and alchemists tried to find the answer to the question of whether it is possible to achieve immortality, but the search never brought the desired result. I had to be content with waiting for a better life after death... However, research continues. German scientist Gerhard von Klicke from the Academy of Medical Ethics states that old age should be viewed as a serious illness that can be treated.

Is the old woman with a scythe our program?

More recently, American scientists from the University of Utah have developed technology that makes it possible to determine with high accuracy how much longer a certain person will have to trample this land. The size of the final sections of chromosomes - telomeres - allows us to judge the life expectancy of the person being studied. Scientists have no doubt: sooner or later the elixir of immortality will be found. At least, existing methods can significantly prolong youth.
“Death is not at all the inevitable destiny of every living creature,” Academician Vladimir Skulachev, director of the Research Institute of Physical and Chemical Biology of Moscow State University, told Interlocutor. - Let's say bacteria are immortal. In laboratories where a favorable environment is created for them, they live indefinitely. And some lines of human cancer cells have been living in test tubes for about a hundred years and are not going to die. Why should the cells of the human body die? Yes, the fact of the matter is that they, as a rule, do not die of old age, but commit suicide. There is a hypothesis according to which death is not a necessary process, but only a certain program embedded in our body. If we can get rid of it, life expectancy will increase significantly. And we can achieve eternal youth.

"Suicide" genes

Death is not inevitable for living beings, but is created by nature for evolution. Organisms that do not change would die out immediately after birth: for example, due to climate change. The constant mixing of species provides a variable living mass with a huge number of diverse characteristics, capable of adapting to any changes on the planet. Nature supports the body during reproductive age, and then it no longer needs it, since it simply takes up space and takes away food from younger ones. This is the cruel logic of survival: individual representatives of the species are mortal, but the species itself is immortal. The main task of scientists is to deceive nature and thereby give immortality to man.
In the second half of life, after 40 years, the human body launches mechanisms that lead it to self-destruction and death. Scientists have found a number of “suicide” genes. Today, in practice, although so far only on experimental animals, a number of impressive results have been obtained. Thus, the introduction of the enzyme telomerase into cells, which restores protective telomeres, made it possible to increase the life span of cells several times. The experiment continues. Neutralizing just one “suicide” gene in mice made it possible to extend their life by a third, and eliminating two similar genes in worms extended their life by 6 times.
All this indicates that aging can be fought. There are individual cells in a person that are practically immortal: these are blood cells, intestinal cells and tumor cells. Moreover, there are immortal organisms in nature: for example, hydras, as well as a separate type of jellyfish. It turns out that immortality is not a contradiction to nature and, under favorable conditions, is quite achievable. New discoveries in medicine can already significantly increase life expectancy, and in the future scientists want to achieve real immortality.

“Chilled” will reach 700

At the beginning of the last century, aesculapians amused themselves by injecting serum from the tissues of newborn fallow deer into the patient’s body, giving blood transfusions and coming up with all sorts of means of prolonging life. But, as practice has shown, this was of little use. The invented drugs did not want to become an elixir of immortality; they only helped to slightly slow down the aging of the body. Only at the end of the century did the Americans Woodring Wright and Jerry Shay manage to find the very “time bomb” that leads to aging. And they also discovered the enzyme telomerase, which is able to force cells not to stop dividing, thereby maintaining constant regeneration. It would seem that this is the elixir of immortality. But it turned out that everything is not so simple. The enzyme must be introduced into every cell of the body, and cells that multiply unhindered will sooner or later turn into cancer cells. However, it was this discovery that led to a whole series of new experiments in the search for immortality.
Later, hormones began to be used for rejuvenation: they helped to delay old age quite well. There have even been attempts to reduce the temperature of the human body by 2 degrees. According to calculations, this can extend your stay on earth up to 700 years. Moreover, a “chilled” person will not experience any side effects.
Quite a lot of ways to prolong life are based on the realization of the hidden physical capabilities of the body itself. Thus, Candidate of Biological Sciences Suren Arakelyan developed a method of physiologically beneficial fasting - every year the body needs to “get up for major repairs” in the form of fasting for one month. He conducted his experiments on chickens - and he managed to achieve amazing results: instead of the 6 years of life allotted by nature, his pets began to live 18 years. Three times more! During this time, tissues are regenerated - as a result, the aging process itself slows down. And Paul Bragg was able to prove the effectiveness of fasting for prolonging life by his own example. At 90 years old, he was lithe and agile, as if he was no more than 30. Bragg died while surfing when he was 95 years old (most who live to that age are no longer able to even go to the store on their own). At the autopsy, doctors were amazed: his body was absolutely healthy. According to Arakelyan, even if we use today’s knowledge, we can safely aim for 120 years, and in the future, with the development of medicine, up to 300-500 years.

Robots will be bled

At the Institute of Biochemistry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, the amazing properties of microphage cells were discovered. Their function is simple - they are the orderlies of our body, destroying dead cells. In general, they have been known about for a long time, but it turned out that, in addition to “cleansing” the body, they are capable of destroying the stress hormone - adrenaline. As long as there are microphages in the body, we are young. The only problem is that they do not live very long, but if you introduce them artificially, you can maintain the youth of the body. So far, experiments are being conducted only on rats. But literally in 10-15 years, such preventive injections will become a reality.
One catch - you need to learn how to synthesize microphages artificially, because there is hardly an enthusiast willing to sacrifice his own youth for the benefit of another. And this is where a relatively recent branch of biotechnology, nanotechnology, can help. In essence, this is the production of very small robots, smaller than a human cell, capable of working with individual molecules and atoms. If a surgeon can perform an operation on a single organ, then nanorobots can operate on a single cell; moreover, they can assemble the desired cell in parts.
Pharmacologists, biotechnologists and geneticists have already clearly proven that, if not immortality, then extending life several times is quite feasible. And given the rapid development of medicine, this may become a reality in the next ten years. But here’s the catch: tens of billions of immortals, multiplying in geometric progression - where to put them on this sinful earth? Although, of course, you can prevent them from reproducing. On pain of being freed from immortality.
Mikhail Yakovlev.