The Science Behind: Immortality (Cover- Ishita Baghel)
The very idea of living forever, to have an undying, long, and healthy existence on this marvelous earth makes you want to know more. We have observed immortality only in mythical beings like gods and vampires. But with the massive medical, economic, and technological human achievements, can we overtime, achieve the impossible? Maybe after a span of 25 years, immortality won't just be a philosophy.
Before getting on the details, let's have a look at the present situation. The current life expectancy for mankind is around 72 years. There is a higher expectancy for women than men. Also, the people living in developed countries have higher expectancy than those living in a developing country(due to poor sanitation, diet, and health care facilities). Now coming back to the topic.. some experts say that there isn't really a secret behind living a long life and here are some of the things they strongly recommend: do exercise, don't smoke, don't drink too much, eat a healthy diet, breath fresh air, stay positive and make friends, live in a good environment and lastly, get good medical care.
If we try and improve upon these sanitary and essential aspects and try to incorporate them into our daily lifestyle (especially for developing countries), we sure can increase our life expectancy by some 35 to 40 years.
But hold on, so the untold key to immortality is diet and exercise! That can't be true... right!? Well, it is temporarily and partially true. Since scientists haven't really found or developed such an advanced technology which could enable humans to live uncountable lifetimes on our mother planet. For now, we can only say that it's just an experiment which, if miraculously worked, would make the top headline on the newsletter.
There are numerous species of whale, turtles, and many more that can live up to 100 years. Scientists just need to figure out as to what it is in their cell mechanism which allows them to replicate, and function properly, and thus get to live more than a century. "We need to either change our genomes or create a certified drug or medicine or find other ways to enhance our systems so we have the same kind of lifespans as they do.", says David Sinclair. And to that, we will need to reverse the process of cell aging known as "senescence."
So will the race to immortality be a success or will we just have to wait for the next innovative and creative generation of our kind to do what we couldn't?
May the curiosity consume you.
Love,
Disha.