Published in January 23rd, 2010
Today’s WSJ contained a well-written review by Matt Ridley of a new book about the anti-aging market. Ridley says that in “Eternity Soup,” author Greg Critser meets “snake-oil salesmen, then the hard-headed scientists and along the way people who cannot quite be pigeonholed as either.” He also notes that “average life expectancy across [...]
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Published in October 3rd, 2009
That was the headline from a recent AP story. Depending on how the research goes, that could be a very conservative estimate. Here’s more from the article:
“James Vaupel of the Max Planck Institute in Germany and colleagues in Denmark examined studies published globally in 2004-2005 on numerous issues related to aging. They found [...]
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Published in September 28th, 2009
That was the headline in a NYT article today. The reality is that scientific respect for life-extending research has been there for quite a while, it’s just that the NYT recently noticed. In any case, here’s an interesting prediction that was made at Harvard Medical School:
““In five or six or seven years,” [...]
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Published in September 11th, 2009
This is great news from the Economist:
“More children are surviving beyond their fifth birthday, according to a new report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). The child mortality rate—the number of under-fives dying per thousand live births—declined from 90 in 1990 to 65 in 2008, a drop of over a quarter. The number of [...]
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Published in August 20th, 2009
Here’s the latest from the CDC (Aug 19, 2009):
Life Expectancy at All Time High; Death Rates Reach New Low, New Report Shows
U.S. life expectancy reached nearly 78 years (77.9), and the age-adjusted death rate dropped to 760.3 deaths per 100,000 population, both records, according to the latest mortality statistics from the Centers for Disease Control [...]
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Published in August 14th, 2009
“We’re at the beginning of an unmanned revolution.” That’s what Gary Kessler, who oversees unmanned aviation programs for the US Navy and Marines, told the AFP.
According to the article, “Robots or “unmanned systems” are now deployed by the thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan, spying from the sky for hours on end, searching [...]
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Published in May 11th, 2009
From the FT. The number was 15%, but has gone up with the recession.
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Published in May 8th, 2009
Here’s a detailed chart with the answer from the Economist. Japan, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and France are at the top.
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Published in April 6th, 2009
The NYT reports today that “A new DNA test for the virus that causes cervical cancer does so much better than current methods that some gynecologists hope it will eventually replace the Pap smear in wealthy countries and cruder tests in poor ones.” The study was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation [...]
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Published in March 24th, 2009
Oprah’s Dr. Oz just did a segment on longevity and caloric restriction where he said that “There’s one man in Oprah’s audience who may become the first man in history to live to be 150 years old.” Caloric restriction is the only known way at the moment to extend life.
Also, today in the [...]
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Published in March 2nd, 2009
A new Kaiser Permanente study says that “Drinking a glass of wine a day may lower the risk of Barrett’s esophagus, a condition that precedes esophageal cancer.” Apparently drinking beer or liquor didn’t help prevent cancer. Maybe it’s the resveratrol in wine that is the difference? This news must make GlaxoSmithKline happy.
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Published in January 27th, 2009
From the Guardian:
A British woman has become the first in the world to conceive using a new IVF technique that could more than double the success rate of pregnancies.
The 41-year-old woman was treated after suffering two miscarriages and having 13 courses of IVF, none of which led to a baby.
[...]
The process uses a laser to [...]
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Published in January 9th, 2009
Dr. Leonid A. Gavrilov, a Research Associate at the Center on Aging, NORC and the University of Chicago was just awarded a 5-year research grant from the NIH to study the mechanisms of human longevity. It is nice to see the NIH taking more of an interest in this important area.
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Published in December 8th, 2008
This bit of data was re-posted from Parade magazine on the GRG mailing list today. The numbers are of course projected to grow.
How many people in this country are 100 or older?
At the time of the last census, in the year 2000, the U.S. had about 50,000 centenarians. The largest number (5341) lived in [...]
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Published in November 25th, 2008
This is great news, particularly since the American population is aging and cancer tends to strike older people at higher rates.
From Reuters:
“Cancer rates have dropped for the first time in the United States and previous declines in cancer deaths are accelerating, a report released on Tuesday showed as cancer-fighting efforts produced solid results. [...]
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Published in September 23rd, 2008
A study by Dr. Dean Ornish and his team showed that lifestyle changes including diet, exercise, and stress management techniques made a difference in telomerase levels. “Telomerase repairs and lengthens telomeres, which are DNA-protein complexes at the end of chromosomes that directly affect how quickly cells age. As telomeres become shorter and their structural integrity [...]
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Published in July 22nd, 2008
Well, this is a headline we don’t see very often, but it shouldn’t surprise anyone. As older people become healthier, why wouldn’t they continue to have sex?
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Published in July 11th, 2008
More than 200 scientists and longevity activists gathered at UCLA recently to discuss advancements in repairing humans. New technology is making it possible to imagine a world with ever greater life spans, but old world issues pervaded the discussions.
The Methuselah Foundation’s Aubrey de Grey organized the event and kicked it off with a theoretical explanation [...]
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Published in June 13th, 2008
In case you haven’t noticed, life expectancy is growing. According to the US National Center for Health Statistics, “Life expectancy at birth hit a new record high in 2006 of 78.1 years, a 0.3 increase from 2005.” Here is their press release. AP also did a story on it, which can be found [...]
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Published in June 3rd, 2008
This should be an interesting conference. The invite says:
“At Aging 2008 you will engage with top scientists and advocates as they present their findings and advice, and learn what you can do to help accelerate progress towards a cure for the disease and suffering of aging.”
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