No matter how much humanity exists, the desire to increase life expectancy, find a recipe eternal youth and immortality did not leave him. These searches and dreams are reflected in legends and myths. different peoples, in ancient medical treatises written before our era, in the experiments of medieval alchemists.

Achievements of modern medicine, knowledge and opportunities modern man, of course, should also suggest a longer lifespan, but the statistics show otherwise. According to the Bible, people used to live incomparably longer: Adam's life span was 930 years, Maleleel's was 895, Enoch's was 365, Noah's was 950...

But not only biblical heroes lived a long time historical facts testify to the existence of peoples - centenarians. An example of this: the ancient Greeks - the Pelasgians. According to Plato, Xenophon and Pythagoras, their life expectancy reached at least 200 years. Moreover, they remained healthy and youthful until the end of their lives. Needless to say, the human imagination has always been struck by records of longevity. There is evidence that the Tibetan Lee Chunk Yune lived 252 years, and the life expectancy of an Iranian named Saped Abutalim Mousavi was 191 years. The married couple John and Sarah Rovel (from Hungary) lived together for 147 years (wife died at 164, and husband at 172).

It is known that the life expectancy of Joseph Barrington from Norway was 154 years (he died in 1790), and Thomas Parr from England died at 152, it is also known that he registered his last marriage when he was 120 years old. A resident of Turkey, Fatima Ediger, at the age of 95, gave birth to twins, her husband was then 127 years old.

Recall examples from life famous people. They eloquently show us that a person is quite capable of living long enough and to the end of his days to keep vitality and the ability to be creative. The famous artists Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky and Vecellio Titian continued to create beautiful canvases even after 90 years of age; scientific works.

All modern scientists are unanimous in the opinion that now a person lives much less than his capabilities given to him by nature. Physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov noted that minimum term human life is 100 years old. The naturalist Louis Leclerc Buffon, in the course of his research, established that the life of any organism should be five times the period of its growth. So, if a person's growth stops by the age of 25, then he should live 125 years. Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov was sure that a person can live 200 - 300 years. And the German physiologist Julius Robert Mayer claimed: 1,000 years!

And there are scientists who even suggest the possibility of ETERNAL human life.

Back in 1977, Academician Boris Vasilyevich Bolotov completed treatise“Immortality is real”, which he devoted 30 years of his life to writing. In it, the scientist formulated the laws of human aging, and also put forward a theory that would slow down aging and renew the life of the cells of the human body. He created a healing composition called "Bolotov's Balm", which stimulates the processes associated with the regeneration of human body tissues. His theory " eternal life"is based on the replacement every 40 years of the leader cell, which is located on the abdomen (two fingers below the navel) and promotes the production of young cells. The reason why the body wears out is that this cell produces its resources, that is, it simply grows old, and, Boris Vasilyevich believes, it can be replaced with a new fertilized egg. Each such replacement will stimulate all the cells of the body to renew.

also in scientific world There are several concepts of the theory of programmed aging of the body. According to one of them, the “aging mechanism” is located in each individual cell, and deoxyribonucleic acid determines the aging process. But DNA, saturated with genes, often makes “mistakes”, as scientists figuratively say, “breakdowns” occur in it, leading to mutations, so its program must be constantly violated, and old age, in theory, may not come at all.

Another theory of immortality is described in the book by Vladimir Ivanovich Shcherbakov "Atlantes, gods and giants", the essence of which is to endow a person with the qualities of a biomachine of time. Vladimir Ivanovich considered the permanent decrease in the number of nerve cells (neurons) of the body to be the root cause of the aging of the body.

Thus, by the age of 30, on average, a person has only half of the number of neurons that was given to him at birth. Further, age is measured by the number of years lived, and by the supply of these cells. Under the influence of stress, adverse factors environment nerve cells are constantly dying. When there are 12-15% of them, a person is threatened with death. V.I. Shcherbakov suggested that a new genetic material - a neurogen (the very name "neurogen" is translated as "giving birth to neurons") would be able to solve the problem of restoring the body's nerve cells, and for a person to turn back time.

It has always been believed that nerve cells cannot repair themselves, but during latest research scientists have found that they are still recovering. Although the question is, under what conditions does this occur? the best way and how long it takes remains open.

However, for the Indian sages, adherents of Ayurveda, this knowledge is not secret: they believe that the restoration nervous tissue occurs naturally in strictly certain time: from 21.00 to 01.00 am - during rest and sleep. As you can see, again the path to longevity comes down to maintaining a reasonable lifestyle.

Every day on our planet 100,000 people die of old age. It would seem that this natural process inherent in human nature. Death from old age is inevitable, as is the change of seasons.

However, statements from various scientists about the possibility of eternal life appear in the media almost daily. Will humanity be able to find a recipe for longevity in the near future, or will eternal life remain a dream? Russian businessman calls for investing in immortality.

Russian multimillionaire asks big business fund his project the main objective which is the achievement of human immortality by 2045. 32-year-old Dmitry Itskov believes in the success of his business and hopes to get big money for research and development of technologies that would allow to live 300 years. In the future, this project provides for eternal life.

key element this idea - creation artificial body or a human robot into which they will transfer human consciousness or human brain. The non-profit organization "Initiative 2045", founded by Itskov, is creating research center to develop human immortality.

Last year, Itskov reached out to the Forbes billionaires, urging them to give people eternal life. To do this, it was only necessary to finance research in the field of an artificial body and cybernetic immortality. So far, Itskov has not been supported by anyone, but he was able to achieve fame: his project is covered by many world media. This summer, Itskov is going to address the entire global business community.
His organization will host the second Global Future 2045 Congress, where leading scientists, entrepreneurs and engineers will discuss new technologies to extend human life. During the convention, Itskov will try to convince businesses to invest in immortality, as this is a great business opportunity. Large investments are needed for the production of robot bodies, systems remote control, interfaces that will allow the human brain to control the robot, and life support systems for the brain of an artificial body. Itskov understands that his project causes skepticism and distrust among some people. However, according to him, for the human race to survive, long-term solutions and evolutionary changes are needed.

Eternal life in facts

So, from the book "Genesis" old testament we learn that Adam lived for 930 years, and his son Seth for 912 years. Adam had a son when he was 105 years old. Indian hermits, Chinese monks, thanks to secret methods, lived up to 400 years. At the beginning of the 20th century, in a Tomsk hospital, a man presented documents that confirmed that he was over 200 years old. With the Indian centenarian Tapasviji, who lived for more than 180 years, a story similar to a fairy tale happened. Once, at the foot of the Himalayan mountains, he met a hermit who spoke ancient Indian Sanskrit. The hermit was over 5,000 years old. The secret of his longevity was a strict diet, as well as the adoption of a special drug, the secret of which he carefully kept. These facts confirm the possibility of, if not eternal, then very long life on Earth.

The question of eternal life scientific point vision

The question of eternal life has been worrying humanity for a long time. Hoping to get an answer to it, people habitually direct their gaze towards science. According to American scientists, the reason for our so short existence is the instinct to reproduce. If a person did not have a system for self-reproduction, most likely, in his development he would switch to new level, which allows you to live for centuries, replacing old organs with new ones. This way of existence is typical for the species of jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula. In the body of a jellyfish, cells are converted from one type to another. This process can repeat indefinitely, allowing this species to be immortal.

Recent theoretical developments leading British gerontologist, Professor Aubrey de Gray, testify that humanity is on the verge of immortality. The professor is convinced that microbiological science in the next 30-40 years will be able to guarantee a thousand-year duration of human life. “Already now,” says the gerontologist, “we have the possibility of extending human life for hundreds of years, and similar experiments are already being carried out on animals. In 5 years, they will be carried out on humans, and by about 2030, the aging of the human body will be blocked.”

According to Professor de Grey, the first person who can live to be a thousand years old has already been born...

How to prolong life?

Modern biologists have developed more than 300 hypotheses about aging and death. To rejuvenate the body, scientists have come up with another more theories. We list only a small part.

More hormones. British physiologist Ernest Starling isolated testosterone in 1905, which he called "the hormone of eternal youth." No rejuvenation happened, but scientists are still looking for the secrets of eternal life in hormones.

Testicle (testicular) transplant. Dr. Sergei Voronov, the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky, transplanted testicles and seminal glands of monkeys to patients who yearned to become younger.

Grounding. Aircraft designer Alexander Mikulin believed that all human troubles were caused by static electricity, so during sleep he was necessarily grounded with special metal parts. - Winter swimming and vegetarianism. Porfiry Ivanov, author popular theory hardening, recommended everyone to swim in the hole, walk barefoot and eat only vegetables. Porfiry himself died at the age of 85.

Lengthen telomeres. Alexey Olovnikov, doctor biological sciences I am sure that the end sections of chromosomes - telomeres, shortening with each cell division, are responsible for life expectancy. You can live forever if you figure out how to prevent it.

Kill the radicals. Academician Skulachev believes that aging is responsible free radicals that cause DNA damage in cells. Now the scientist is creating an antioxidant drug that could neutralize radicals.

Cloning. Professor Stephen Minger from London is convinced that only cloning can give a person immortality, because with its help it will be possible to replace worn-out "originals" with cloned organs.

Is eternal life necessary?

Much is said about eternal life. Perhaps someday this will become a reality. But each person must ask himself, why should he live forever? Indeed, even King Solomon refused the elixir of longevity offered to him, saying that he did not want to live when all his loved ones died. And Solomon was wise man…

Altar of Initaxa

Mankind lives in the third millennium from the birth of Christ.
I wonder what the world looked like when Chronos measured out only the first millennium?
We observe how rapidly the pace of life is growing, how ideas about space and time are changing - and how archaic the world looked 1000 years ago, when, according to the prophecies, the end of the world was expected!

Ten centuries have passed, but eschatological sentiments have not disappeared. For two millennia, the commandments of Christ have not lost their relevance, and this testifies: despite the technocratic development of civilization, that man has remained the same.

In the year 1000, poverty enveloped Europe like an icy fog. It was civilized only in the southwest, where Arab caliphs, yes in possession Byzantine emperors; the rest of it was the "third world". The people lived in smoky shacks, gentlemen in narrow stone structures. It was dark here and there, drafts roamed around - the window openings were covered with wooden shields, hung with skins; glass appeared only in the XII century. Europe knew neither coffee nor tea, sugar was only in Venice, Arab merchants sold it to the rich as a means of giving strength.

Paper in Europe was practically unknown, books were only in the monasteries and castles of the feudal lords. And only in monasteries, with the help of sun and water clocks, time was kept in order to perform the prescribed prayers on time. The people were informed ahead of time with church pulpit which saints should be honored in next days. New Year could begin on Christmas Eve or shortly before Easter, and few people were interested in which year it was from the "incarnation of the Lord", as they said then.
Well, what about those chosen ones who knew the calendar - did the forthcoming change of millennia plunge them into awe? After all, in the "Revelation" of John the Theologian it is said: "When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth."
"A thousand years". This date, even among Catholic Christians little known, for the vast majority of the inhabitants of the planet did not mean absolutely anything, moreover, it was not set accurately. The Roman monk Dionysius the Small in 525 calculated the year of the birth of Christ, and in 532, a new chronology was introduced, replacing the one that was conducted from the founding of Rome.
But, as you know, Dionysius was wrong in his calculations - probably by six years.
As for the Islamic part of Europe, including Sicily, Spain and Portugal, there the first millennium came only in the year 622 according to the Catholic calendar, when the prophet Muhammad fled from his persecutors from Mecca to Medina.
The eastern part of the Roman Empire - with its capital in Constantinople - lived then already in 6509 from the Creation of the World; this reckoning was adhered to by all Eastern Christians, and in Russia it lasted even until 1700. The Jews then had the year 1312; for most Buddhists it was 1544.
However, the Catholics themselves were not supposed to understand the "thousand years" from the Apocalypse literally. Back in the 5th century, one of the church fathers, Augustine, taught that the Bible meant only "the fulfillment of times." And so, from the point of view of theology, Otto III was right, who in historical document, dated May 1000, wrote that the end of the world and Last Judgment await humanity only in the distant future.
For those who happened to live in the thousandth year, in Everyday life and without that there were many worries. Most lived in poverty - exhausted by work, marked by illness, completely disenfranchised. Peasants huddled in huts built of clay. The walls of the hearth were also made of clay, over which a hole was made in the thatched roof for smoke. The hearth served as the only source of light in the evenings; candles were considered a luxury. The nights were long, dark, full of ghosts.

In such a hut, as a rule, there was one room, which served both as a kitchen and a bedroom. Here they ate and slept, conceived offspring, were born and died. They usually gave birth to 6 to 10 children. On average, half of the children died in the first years of life. Nobody taught them to read, at five or six years old children had to help in the field, at twelve they were considered adults.
The peasants treated their wives rudely. "Never pull her by the hair or beat her, even if you find it difficult to resist," a Franciscan preacher admonished them in the thirteenth century.
They ate oatmeal and barley porridge, bread, peas, lentils. Meat was only on holidays. The peasants were not allowed to hunt, it was the privilege of the landowners.
Such a life was partly adorned with food and drink "for free", which fell to the poor on holidays. These days, accustomed to strict restrictions, people pounced on food. They swallowed and poured into themselves everything they could reach, then they vomited, and many even died from gluttony.
This is how their life went. Most of the diseases that people go to the doctor for today are toothache, spasms, rheumatism - were not taken seriously at all and were not treated. The mortal body was perceived as a source of suffering. Illness and early death were completely normal. Was the earth not a vale of sorrow? God created order on earth once and for all, and all hopes were turned to true, eternal life, which will begin on the day of the second coming of Christ, on the day of the Last Judgment.
One could only envy the landowners-nobles, people from the retinue of kings. The landowner chose some hard-to-reach place and erected residential and outbuildings there, which were surrounded by thick walls - security was valued more than convenience. To the usual ideas of majestic castles, these stone structures do not correspond in any way: in the ruins of a German castle, the fortress wall outlines a quadrangle with an area of ​​​​only 50 square meters- the size of a modern two-room apartment.
Life flowed the same way. Women spent most of their time at home. They spun, knitted and embroidered; guests were a rarity, as were books. Excrement was poured from the fortress wall. As entertainment - tournaments and civil strife.
Kings and emperors were constantly on the move. If they did not wage war or were not in Rome, then they wandered from residence to residence, remained there for several days or weeks - and set off again. Roads built by the Romans Central Europe, by that time they had collapsed, it was possible to move only along country roads, and through numerous swamps - along log decks. The rider rarely made more than 60 kilometers a day, and the donkey-drawn wagons on which the court rode barely 20 kilometers. Settlements with more than 500 inhabitants were called "cities".
Rome, once a city of a million people, sacked by the Goths, the Vandals, and the Romans themselves, numbered no more than twenty thousand inhabitants. And they lived in a huge garbage dump-ruin.
The streets were littered with broken, mutilated statues and marble columns. Churches were built from destroyed ancient buildings, including St. Peter's Basilica - the papal Cathedral. Monasteries were surrounded by fences of statues. Cabbage and grapes grew among the ruins. Clothes were dried at the Colosseum.
In Catholic Europe at this time the most big city was not Rome, but Venice.

Emperor Constantine, who moved the capital of the empire to Constantinople, promised automatic receipt civil rights and free bread -- and drew in new center the world is not only artisans and merchants.

Justinian, after the suppression of the rebellion, ordered the construction of the largest temple in the world - Hagia Sophia, the dome of which had a diameter of 31 meters and towered 56 meters. Record height for that time.

capital Arab world by 1000 there was Baghdad. In the 9th century, this is the most Big city on the ground (then Angkor overtook him). The Baghdad rich lived in fabulous luxury - their houses were surrounded by flowering gardens, fountains beat in the courtyards. The caliph's orchard occupied an area of ​​30 hectares, there were one and a half thousand public baths in the city.

The tales of the Thousand and One Nights tell of poor, pious Baghdad porters and shoemakers who dream of tasting "noodles with honey" at least once a week. Their life is described quite realistically: the Indian collection of stories was translated in the 9th century and adapted to Arab customs. In "A Thousand and One Nights" Scheherazade tells his tales to the ruler of Samarkand. Samarkand was another pearl among Islamic cities, a center where sciences and arts flourished.
But even grander than the capitals of Islam were the centers of the Buddhist world, primarily Angkor, Kyoto and Guangzhou.
The capital of the Khmer state (on the territory of modern Cambodia), Angkor was founded in the 9th century, two hundred kilometers from the coast indian ocean, near the caravan route from India to China. Having driven tens of thousands of slaves and thousands of working elephants, the Khmer rulers erected their residence - a city of temples and palaces, partly on land, partly on wooden piles.
The life of Angkor was entirely dependent on water. The nearby lake during the rainy season overflowed over an area of ​​ten thousand square kilometers. This water was accumulated by holding back dams in order to direct it through branched channels to the rice fields during a period of drought.
Three crops of rice a year - such was the fruit of the strictest organization of agriculture. Thanks to this, on a tight patch of land, it was possible to feed great amount people - about the thousandth year, the population of the Khmer state was about a million people, and in the XII century - one and a half.
Japanese Kyoto, meanwhile, turned into an imperial residence, and already in the 9th century it had about 500,000 inhabitants. Kyoto was famous before as a center of poetry and music. Poetry competitions were the favorite pastime of the court; aristocrats sent each other letters on Chinese paper, excelling in describing the weather and their own mental states. The color, design and quality of the paper were selected in accordance with the shades of mood and the degree of closeness of the addressee.
another center East Asia, surpassing even Kyoto, was Guangzhou - the birthplace of silk, paper, porcelain. Located on the southeast coast of China, this city has been largest city gigantic empire. Marco Polo tells that in 1278 he visited Guangzhou and saw wide avenues there, along which six-seater carriages drove; houses surrounded by parks, women dressed in silks and adorned with jewels.
On the Yucatan Peninsula (on the territory of modern Mexico), the Mayan people who came from the south from the 8th to the 11th centuries AD built magnificent cities, for example, Uxmal, a city of pyramids and palaces. Its ruins amaze even today: the palace of the ruler, the dizzyingly high "pyramid of soothsayers" with a temple at the top, which is decorated with stone snakes with human heads in gaping mouths.
The Maya achieved amazing advances in mathematics and astronomy. However, neither the wheel nor the iron was known to them.
At that time Australian aborigines lived in the stone age. And during periods of drought, they drank juice from the stomachs of dead antelopes and their own urine, filtered through moss.
The Christianization of Europe proceeded rapidly. In Hungary, the Magyar prince Pike converted to Catholicism, in 1001, under the name of Stephen I, he was crowned by the pope - and with fire and sword he eradicated paganism among his subjects.
And even earlier, in 988, Grand Duke Kyiv Vladimir converted to Orthodoxy and made it state religion Kievan Rus. In the eighth year of his reign, the prince decided to adopt one of the monotheistic religions. To do this, he invited representatives of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
The woman-loving Vladimir was especially attracted by the picture of a Muslim paradise with its houris, but the prince did not approve of the ban on drinking wine from the Koran. catchphrase"Russia is the joy of drinking, we cannot be without it," summed up the choice of the prince.
Soon the foundation of the majestic Sofia was laid. Its appearance was different from the current one: flat Byzantine domes were crowned with walls made of narrow plinth bricks.

From afar, Sofia and other temples of the cities of the Dnieper region seemed to be interspersed with amber in a boundless sea of ​​snow-white huts.
An unthinkably large number of cities and villages for the Scandinavians by the year 1000 gave birth to northern name Russia - Gardarika (country of cities). In the main city of the country, Kyiv, Vladimir Svyatoslavovich sat on the princely throne, sung by epics as Vladimir Yasno Solnyshko, surrounded by the invincible heroes Ilya Muromets and Dobrynya Nikitich, whose prototypes are known to historians. Magi, pagan priests and prophets still roamed the dense forests.
Some historians considered Russia in the year 1000 to be something like paradise lost. There was enough arable chernozem land, and in the forests there was a myriad of game that provided meat and furs. Russia did not know all the "charms" feudal society. This idyll was disturbed by nomad raids.
Of course, today's humanity does not live in constant fear before the raids of a neighboring tribe, but we also have something to fear - terrorism, crime ... not to mention world wars. The proportion of those who are thirsty, dependent and persecuted is now lower than a thousand years ago, but their absolute number has grown - after all, during this time the population of the Earth has increased 12 times. And therefore it is very difficult to answer the question of whether humanity has become happier. From the height of our comfort, we look at all previous eras sympathetically - due to our deep egocentrism - and consider only those periods that are similar to ours to be laudable (for some reason).

And he promised a medicine, thanks to which people will remain young for centuries. How much longer to wait for such a miracle? What has already been done on the way to it? The scientist answered these and other questions in an exclusive interview with our correspondent.

Mr. de Gray made an appointment for me at a Cambridge pub at 14 Chesterton Road. There, he said, at one of the tables was a branch of his office. I got there early to order. English gentleman English tea. But a gentleman who looked more like a hippie with a long beard and tail, dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, approached his "work table" with a laptop in one hand and a pint of beer in the other. So these are the real British scientists! It was even to my advantage: a drinker's tongue is untied. Suddenly I find out the secret of the "elixir of youth"? Or, on the contrary, I will bring the charlatan to clean water.

Ship of the Chosen

Aubrey, they say you keep a ship called the Youth somewhere in neutral waters. And bring rich people from all over the world to it who want to lose a dozen years. If you believe the bloggers, then on the ship you have a huge medical clinic, and you are the head physician in it. The catalog of services contains the latest developments in the field of gerontology: from “youth injections” to genetic engineering. The "ticket" is worth millions of dollars...

There is no such liner! - Aubrey quickly replied, making it clear that he did not want to talk about this topic. - These are stories for the poor. But anti-aging technologies do exist.

But this is harder to believe. The “elixir of youth” has been unsuccessfully searched for for thousands of years.

I understood the mistake of my predecessors. They viewed man as a biological entity. And it is necessary - as an engineering design. The body is a machine. And in any car you need to be able to find breakdowns in time. Eliminate them quickly, and at the level of cogs, that is, molecules and cells. And undergo a technical inspection every thirty years with a complete cleaning of the cells.

But unlike a car, we still have a soul. Or consciousness...

And what will they actually do? AT healthy body- a healthy mind. In addition, the soul, or consciousness, is built into this “machine”, nothing can be done about it.

And how are you going to "repair" old people?

Very simple. It is only necessary to understand how decrepitude of the body-mechanism occurs. In the human body, metabolic processes take place every day. This is the so-called metabolism necessary to sustain life. The metabolism has side effects. I call them damage, or "garbage". Most of"garbage" itself disappears as quickly as it appears. But something remains. Accumulates. And the cell itself is not able to get rid of it.

The result - "garbage" begins to interfere with the cell to work effectively. Metabolic processes are worse than usual. This is where we fall ill, grow decrepit - at first slowly, but then with increasing speed.

Aging can be reversed using engineering methods of dealing with old age: I called them "liquidation" and "neutralization". It is necessary to detect "garbage" in the molecules and cells of the body and clean them from it.

But such a rejuvenation is even theoretically difficult to imagine. Isn't it easier to make a "car" overhaul? Change the engine-heart, carburetor-stomach, transplant new skin in place of old skin? Modern medicine has now gone in this direction.

- "Wipers" are inside the body. For example, we recently learned that some harmful accumulations are easily broken down by small proteins called beta-breakers.

Old cells and fat cells can be removed by stimulating the immune system to attack them.

Does such labor-intensive work require a long hospital stay? Isn't it a joke to clean millions of cells?

A few years ago, it really seemed that rejuvenating people would have to wallow in hospitals for months. But the current technologies are already such that it became possible to create only one medicine, which he drank - and began to rejuvenate. Outpatient.

By the way, thanks to this medicine, those who want to can continue to drink and smoke as much as they like without harm to health. Harmful effect will be neutralized. Cells are cleared.

Your miracle drug will be made for each individual?

No, it will be universal and sold in pharmacies. Like analgin.

New evolution

What will be included in the composition of your miracle drug?

For example, stem cells. Some are already being tested on patients.

Is it a dangerous ingredient? We have rumors that some of our actors have given themselves stem cell injections to rejuvenate themselves. And they died.

Stem cells do a lot of good things, but if they are used incorrectly, that is, in the wrong type of cell in the wrong place in the body, they can destroy human body. Our stem cells will be right.

What else?

Special substances that stimulate immune system, restore elasticity to cells and make unnecessary cells "commit suicide". Peptides or the so-called beta-destroyers, which will eliminate the plaques accumulated between cells. Telomerase is an enzyme that determines the rate of biological aging of cells. And there are many more enzymes that will break down intracellular debris, for example, by borrowing them from certain bacteria.

Dream! No. There are, after all, the simplest organisms that generally live forever. And do you know why? They, unlike us, do not have cells that do not divide. And the cells that divide are very effective method rejuvenation and cleansing the body, because they accumulate less "garbage". The whole problem of human aging is that we have a lot of cells that do not divide. And because a lot of cells littered. Therefore, we cannot apply the science of trees and protozoa to ourselves.

But we can naturally stimulate cell division. It's like how physical exercise lead to muscle growth. Or, for example, by injecting growth factors that stimulate cell division. There is a third method - to introduce cells into the body, modified in such a way that at the age of 70 years or more they “become younger” by 20 or more “biological” years. This must occur even when the cells present in the body have lost the ability to divide.

Researchers argue that the body has “ageing genes” and you can’t escape fate.

There are no genes that make us old. And there are genes that slow down the aging process.

But Nature still invented aging. So she needs it for evolution. Is that why she won't let him fight?

Bullshit! Take our fight against infections - we beat them. It is also possible to fight aging. In general, all technology is aimed at improving human life in all areas, not only in biology. And it would be funny if we thought: oh, this is what nature has created, we will not touch it. Technology is now changing the way evolution is taking place. And people can change into a completely different species, and quickly, because this evolution is controlled by scientists, not nature.

For experiments - beloved women

When there is a cure, who would you rejuvenate besides yourself?

I want to restore youth to my wife, she is 20 years older than me (Aubrey - 48 years old. - S.K.). And for my girlfriend (mistress. - S.K.), who is 34 years old, I want to stop aging.

Are they familiar?

Yes, and it doesn't bother them. I hope that they will agree to the experiments. My wife is also a biologist, professor, we work together in Cambridge. Today she looks younger than her years and, like any woman, does not want to turn into an old woman. In general, I believe that by the middle of this century humanity will no longer turn into decrepit old people.

Will you take me as a volunteer? It is necessary to switch from mice to people.

It will be very risky for the first person. So you'd better live longer.

How old will the first volunteer be?

About 60 years old. I'll explain why. new car you do not take the next day to the repairmen. And you will not begin to repair it when it has completely collapsed. Therefore, we need to choose such an optimal age when destruction has already occurred in the body, but there is still time until the person is completely bent.

How many years will you drop the test subjects?

Thirty. And they will no longer be 60 years old. They won’t until they turn 90 according to their passport. At this age, they will be treated again. Then again, when it turns 120 years old. So we will return back to youth - to 30 years. Then the development of therapies will go at an accelerated pace. And it will be possible to live at least up to 1000 years.

And since we will put rejuvenating technologies on stream in 25-30 years, those who are now 30 are the lucky ones who will receive the maximum effect.

Money in the morning, chairs in the evening

You are called in the world media "professor from Hogwarts" - the school of wizards from "Harry Potter". Like the comparison?

I don't like being compared to a wizard, I scientist. I also don't like being compared to Jesus Christ. But in Russia I was compared to Rasputin. I like it.

Colleagues call you a dissident from science...

I have radical ideas that annoy a lot of people. Some of my colleagues are only trying to reduce speed aging, and I want to completely rid people of aging. It's like in seismology: some people like to study volcanoes, while others are looking for ways to prevent an eruption.

Do you hope to live to see your own cure?

These are two different things: how to live longer and how I live (points to a glass of beer). I don't get enough sleep, I work a lot, and I realize that I'm running out of energy. But I know my pills are coming soon.

Honestly: it's hard to believe in your medicine.

Well, that's stupid. People do not believe in eternal youth because they have failed for thousands of years. But people have been trying to fly for thousands of years. And they fly great now. The same thing happens in the field of combating old age. The current technologies, put together and improved, can already revolutionize the entire medicine.

And what prevents us from approaching the “era of immortality”?

Money. I have three million euros. And I need 20 million every year. The sooner they appear, the sooner humanity will receive a cure for old age.

Aubrey, confess, why did you come to Russia? Your medicine will certainly not cost as much as aspirin, it will only be available to the rich. And there are many poor people in our country.

But you have a lot of oligarchs who want to keep their youth. And don't be afraid to experiment. In general, to my surprise, I noticed that in Russia the idea of ​​immortality is treated better than in England or the USA.

At these words, Aubrey began to gather. But to my request for a second to attach a T-shirt with the Komsomolskaya Pravda logo to himself in order to be photographed, he reacted unexpectedly. In front of everyone, he undressed and changed clothes, demonstrating his white, skinny body of a yogi. And KP readers wrote: “I wish everyone to be healthy now and when they live forever. Aubrey de Grey. Cambridge. 08/24/2011".

Only for some reason I remembered the words of Joseph Stalin, who, on the day Academician Alexander Bogomolets (1881 - 1946) died, lamented: “He promised eternal life, but he himself, a scoundrel, died at 65. You cheated, you bastard!" No matter how Aubrey deceived us.

PRIVATE BUSSINESS

Aubrey de Gray - biogerontologist, Chief Editor Rejuvenation Research magazine, chairman of the Methuselah Foundation, a medical non-governmental organization that funds research aimed at extending human life. Author of a large-scale anti-aging plan - "Strategies for achieving negligible aging engineering methods» (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, SENS). The goal of the SENS program is to create a technology accessible to every person, with the help of which it is possible to restore the body to any degree of rejuvenation and maintain it in this state for any time.

OPINIONS OF SKEPTS

Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Professor, Director of the Russian Gerontological scientific center Vladimir Shabalin:

Until now, no one has lived more than 122 years. That's the whole record of mankind. And no medical interventions have yielded any results. There will not be a single person who will live 1000 years.

Certainly, biological life organism in principle can be extended, but it will no longer be a person. If we go for gene intervention, some cellular changes, then a different kind of person will appear. But even he will not become immortal. Humanity will also leave. And will give a branch of a more highly developed species. All of nature is working on it. And it's hard to say whether Gray's activity will yield any results.

University of Illinois Chicago professor Jay Olshansky:

What is common among all the ancient adherents of the idea physical immortality? They are all dead. The temptation of immortality will last longer than its supporters.

In fairness, it must be said that the science of aging is progressing rapidly. But nothing in gerontology comes close to fulfilling the promise of a significant increase in life expectancy.

TEST

Find out how long you will live

Aubrey de Gray advised: "The most best test lifespan is your photograph.” This was proved by the studies of his Danish colleagues, published in the British Medical Journal.

Those who look younger than their age are much more likely to live to old age than those whose appearance is ahead of real age. These are the results of a study conducted by geneticists from the University of Southern Denmark, who over the course of seven years observed the life of almost 400 pairs of fraternal twins aged 70 to 90 years.

The researchers found a possible biological reason explaining this result. Key fragments of DNA, the so-called telomeres, which are responsible for the ability of cells to reproduce, also determine how young their owner looks. Short telomeres are thought to indicate faster aging and may be associated with certain diseases. Of the twins who took part in the study, it was those who looked younger who had longer telomeres.

Give your photos to friends to show them to their acquaintances who do not know you. And let them tell you how old you look. If they give you more years than you have according to your passport, then it's time to take care of your health.

Old age is inevitable, as is the change of seasons. However, statements from various scientists about the possibility of eternal life appear in the media almost daily. Will humanity be able to find a recipe for longevity in the near future, or will eternal life remain a dream?

Russian businessman calls for investing in immortality

A Russian multimillionaire is asking big business to finance his project, the main goal of which is to achieve human immortality by 2045. 32-year-old Dmitry Itskov believes in the success of his business and hopes to get big money for research and development of technologies that would allow him to live 300 years. In the future, this project provides for eternal life. The key element of this idea is the creation of an artificial body or a human robot, into which the human consciousness or human brain will be transferred. The non-profit organization "Initiative 2045", founded by Itskov, is creating a research center for the development of human immortality.

Last year, Itskov reached out to the Forbes billionaires, urging them to give people eternal life. For this, it was only necessary to finance research in the field of an artificial body and cybernetic immortality. So far, Itskov has not been supported by anyone, but he was able to achieve fame: his project is covered by many world media. This summer, Itskov is going to address the entire global business community.

His organization will host the second Global Future 2045 Congress, where leading scientists, entrepreneurs and engineers will discuss new technologies to extend human life. During the convention, Itskov will try to convince businesses to invest in immortality, as this is a great business opportunity. Large investments are needed for the production of robot bodies, remote control systems, interfaces that allow the human brain to control the robot, and life support systems for the brain of an artificial body. Itskov understands that his project causes skepticism and distrust among some people. However, according to him, for the human race to survive, long-term solutions and evolutionary changes are needed.

Eternal life in facts

So, from the book "Genesis" of the Old Testament, we learn that Adam lived 930 years, and his son Seth - 912 years. Adam had a son when he was 105 years old. Indian hermits, Chinese monks, thanks to secret methods, lived up to 400 years. At the beginning of the 20th century, in a Tomsk hospital, a man presented documents that confirmed that he was over 200 years old. With the Indian centenarian Tapasviji, who lived for more than 180 years, a story similar to a fairy tale happened. Once, at the foot of the Himalayan mountains, he met a hermit who spoke ancient Indian Sanskrit. The hermit was over 5,000 years old. The secret of his longevity was a strict diet, as well as the adoption of a special drug, the secret of which he carefully kept. These facts confirm the possibility of, if not eternal, then very long life on Earth.

The question of eternal life from a scientific point of view

The question of eternal life has been worrying humanity for a long time. Hoping to get an answer to it, people habitually direct their gaze towards science. According to American scientists, the reason for our so short existence is the instinct to reproduce. If a person did not have a system for self-reproduction, most likely, in his development he would move to a new level, allowing him to live for centuries, replacing old organs with new ones. This way of existence is typical for the species of jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula. In the body of a jellyfish, cells are converted from one type to another. This process can be repeated indefinitely, which allows this species to be immortal.

Recent theoretical developments by the leading British gerontologist, Professor Aubrey de Grey, indicate that humanity is on the verge of immortality. The professor is convinced that microbiological science in the next 30-40 years will be able to guarantee a thousand-year duration of human life. “Already now,” the gerontologist says, “we have the ability to extend human life for hundreds of years, and similar experiments are already being carried out on animals. In 5 years, they will be carried out on humans, and by about 2030, the aging of the human body will be blocked.”

According to Professor de Gray, the first person who can live to be a thousand years old has already been born. Many scientists claim that there is no genetic program in the human body that provides for aging and death. They believe that the aging process is caused solely by cellular changes that accumulate and lead to death.

However, in the era of the microbiological revolution, it is possible to stop the process of cellular mutations with the help of the latest biotechnological developments that can update with some regularity. human body bringing youth. Thus, in the future, people will be able to regularly update their own the physical state. How do scientists intend to defeat old age? Studies in mice have shown that this can be done by blocking cell division, as well as removing harmful inclusions from it. Lost cells will be replaced by new ones, which will prevent the mutation of chromosomes. Cell-stem therapy will be able to renew human organs, and experiments of this kind are already being carried out.

How to prolong life?

Modern biologists have developed more than 300 hypotheses about aging and death. To rejuvenate the body, scientists have come up with even more theories. We list only a small part.

More hormones. British physiologist Ernest Starling isolated testosterone in 1905, which he called "the hormone of eternal youth." No rejuvenation happened, but scientists are still looking for the secrets of eternal life in hormones.

Testicle (testicular) transplant. Dr. Sergei Voronov, the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky, transplanted testicles and seminal glands of monkeys to patients who yearned to become younger.

Grounding. Aircraft designer Alexander Mikulin believed that all human troubles were caused by static electricity, so during sleep he was necessarily grounded with special metal parts. - Winter swimming and vegetarianism. Porfiry Ivanov, the author of the popular theory of hardening, recommended that everyone swim in the hole, walk barefoot and eat only vegetables. Porfiry himself died at the age of 85.

Lengthen telomeres. Aleksey Olovnikov, Doctor of Biological Sciences, is sure that the end sections of chromosomes - telomeres, which shorten with each cell division, are responsible for life expectancy. You can live forever if you figure out how to prevent it.

Kill the radicals. Academician Skulachev believes that free radicals are responsible for aging, which cause damage to DNA in cells. Now the scientist is creating an antioxidant drug that could neutralize radicals.

Cloning. Professor Stephen Minger from London is convinced that only cloning can give a person immortality, because with its help it will be possible to replace worn-out "originals" with cloned organs.

Is eternal life necessary?

Much is said about eternal life. Perhaps someday this will become a reality. But each person must ask himself, why should he live forever? Indeed, even King Solomon refused the elixir of longevity offered to him, saying that he did not want to live when all his loved ones died. And Solomon was a wise man...