Category Archives: Immortality

On the night of Thursday 3 September 1998, a middle-aged community college professor with a history of heart attacks passed out at the wheel of his car on a busy US highway. The car drifted across the lanes and into the rush of oncoming traffic. The collision was so powerful it thrust the engine of the professors car into the front seats. Miraculously, he survived, and no one else was seriously injured. He recovered from a broken ankle and wrist and left hospital. A month later, he was back there with a pain in his leg a clot that might or might not have been triggered by the accident. Next, his body swelled up to twice its size with fluid, so he looked like a balloon you could prick with a needle and burst. His wife and young children watched as his miraculous survival turned to a sudden worsening of his underlying heart disease. By April 1999 he was dead.

Just over two decades later his son, Michael Grothaus, sat at his computer watching a video of his father, healthy and wearing a yellow T-shirt, playing with a smartphone that was invented many years after his death. He was enjoying himself, recording the sun-dappled park around him. Then he turned towards the screen and smiled benignly at his son from behind his unmistakeable bushy eyebrows.

Grothaus had bought his father back to life as a deepfake. It only costs a couple of hundred dollars. There are whole communities of anonymous deepfakers you can easily reach out to in the danker strata of the internet. Usually they specialise in creating made-to-order-porn: say you want a video of yourself making love to Scarlett Johansson, or to the girl next door. All you need to do is provide a video snippet and they do the rest. To create the video of his father in the park, Grothaus sent over 60 seconds of VHS footage from the mid 1990s. Brad then broke it down into 1,800 images of his fathers face and ran those images through a program called DeepFaceLab, which grafted them on to a video of another man.

The digital resurrection of his father gave rise to contradictory feelings in Grothaus. He watched the video repeatedly relishing the reunion. Then he deleted it horrified at the rupture it had made in reality, and the consequences it implies for our sense of truth and trust.

This split reaction runs through Grothauss book on deepfakes. On the one hand they hold out the prospect of overcoming death, envisioning utopia, fulfilling sexual desire. On the other they bring the fear of utter chaos. Even a short fake video of, say, the CEO of a major company resigning, could send markets into panic for just long enough to enable the people who created it to make a killing. Deepfakes of candidates saying something untoward in the final moments of a close election could change the fate of geopolitics.

But while such scenarios are dizzying in their destructive potential, they are, for the most part, still theoretical. The actual financial scam Grothaus describes involves fraudsters who used a voice recording of a CEO to call his accountant and get him to wire them $243,00. Embarrassing but also only possible because of a pretty gullible interlocutor. The political case study he describes is of an amateur edit of a video that made it look as if Hollywood star Dwayne Johnson was humiliating Hillary Clinton in the run-up to the 2016 election. The video went viral in Magaland, but not because its authenticity was particularly persuasive. It just fitted with peoples existing biases.

Thats the thing about disinformation: its not really geared towards changing peoples minds. Its about feeding them what they want to consume anyway. The quality of the deception is not necessarily the crucial factor. Will deepfakes change this? Will their mere existence destroy any vestiges of trust in a shared reality? Potentially. But one thing we do know is that the discourse that has grown up around this issue, rather than being something radically new, is part of a much older dynamic.

Back in a previous life I used to make TV documentaries. I always wondered why anyone agreed to take part in them. Most were ordinary people uninterested in fame. Slowly it dawned on me there was something about the process of filming that seduced them. The camera seemed to promise that their experiences had meaning, and ultimately offered a kind of immortality. That said, whenever our contributors saw the films they featured in, they hated them. The way we edited them into our storylines made them feel less powerful, more vulnerable. Instead of immortality we brought the opposite: a total loss of self-control.

Our relationship with visual representations of ourselves always runs along this axis of narcissism and dread: at once promising a defeat of death, but by arousing that desire only to disappoint it, crushingly reinforcing its inevitability. Our fascination with deepfakes strikes me as the latest iteration of this emotional rollercoaster, and its one Grothaus captures very well.

Trust No One: Inside the World of Deepfakes is published by Hodder & Stoughton (18.99). To support the Guardian and the Observer buy a copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

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Trust No One: Inside the World of Deepfakes by Michael Grothaus review disinformations superweapon - The Guardian

Interview With the Vampire actors Antonio Banderas and Thandiwe Newton were among those saluting Anne Rice on Sunday, as Twitter filled with heartfelt tributes to the late authors spooky prose, celebration of feminine eroticism and LGBTQ+ representation.

The revered gothic novelist, whose bestselling debut, Interview With the Vampire, was adapted into a 1994 film starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, died Saturday night at age 80 after suffering a stroke, her son and fellow author Christopher Rice said.

Your Mom wrote some dope stories and her work will always be part of my personal journey, Newton, who played Yvette in Interview With the Vampire, tweeted in response to Christopher Rices eulogy.

Respect to your family and my heart goes out to you in your time of grief.

Banderas, who portrayed Armand in director Neil Jordans film adaptation, also shared Christopher Rices announcement with his own tweet. Anne Rice wrote the screenplay for the movie.

Another day, another legend, tweeted Broadway and Disney star Josh Gad: RIP #AnneRice and thank you for introducing us to a world in which vampires werent simply Dracula, but literary springboards for everything that makes us hungry for immortality, desperate for love, longing for legacy, and searching for humanity.

Theater legend Harvey Fierstein echoed those sentiments. Heartbreaking loss of one of the most colorful imaginations ever, he wrote. She made us believe, as common knowledge, that vampires walk among us. What an achievement! Brava!

Star Trek actor George Takei declared that Anne Rices stories will continue to haunt, thrill and inspire for generations to follow. Cassandra Petersons Elvira hailed Interview With the Vampire as her favorite book of all time.

Literary figures also honored Anne Rice, who pioneered the sub-genre through the Vampire Chronicles and other works, selling more than 150 million copies worldwide.

What a life and what a legacy. My god, tweeted Cinderella Is Dead author Kalynn Bayron. Im heartbroken. I loved her work so much. My heart goes out to her family. Rest easy, Anne.

Anne Rice was an author who had a really complicated (and fascinating) relationship with fans and fandom but she leaves behind quite the literary legacy, that helped pull a genre and monster into the modern-era, tweeted The Monster of Her Age author Danielle Binks. Condolences to those who loved her, and her words.

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Anne Rice dies: 'Interview With the Vampire' cast tributes - Los Angeles Times

Bulgasal: Immortal Souls is a latest Korean drama that just got much fanbase just with its name. This is the new Korean series that everybody is eagerly waiting for!

The series, Bulgasal: Immortal Souls is directed by Jang Young-Woo.

And the credit for the story goes to Kwon So-Ra and Seo Jae-Won, these two people are the ones who wrote the story for the series. This is a South Korean original series.

We are going the story of two people Dan Hwal portrayed by Lee Jin-Wook and Min Sang-Wonn portrayed by Kwon Na-Ra.

Initially before 600 years, Dan Hwal was a human. In the time while he was in a project as a militarily officer to remove and clean the mess of the leftovers for the past 600 years, he became an immortal.

But, here there is a turn that Min Sang-Woon, this person was used to be an Immortal, but she unfortunately became a mortal, she is currently human now, and she lives as a human being too. She became a mortal, after she has gone through a biggest event that really made her become a mortal. Through that she changed her identity completely, she changed her name, address and everything.

Here comes another character Ok Eul-Tae portrayed by Lee Joon is an immortal, but he takes everything for granted he enjoys his immortality every inch and every minute.

The latest Korean series, the latest original South Korean series, is going to stream on 18th of December 2021, on tvN, and it is going to stream on Saturday and Sunday every week @ 21:00.

Cast Bulgasal: Immortal Souls

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Bulgasal: Immortal Souls: Things You Must Know About the Series - Daily Research Plot

On the season finale of Everything is Canon, Steve is joined by bestselling author Kalynn Bayron, as they close out the year that was, 2021. A big part of the reason Kalynn is here is because This Poison Heart, a book she released all the way back in June, is my absolute favorite book of 2021, you can read my review HERE.

Heres the summary

Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.

When Briseiss aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imaginedit comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bris unique family lineage.

When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman who Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and its surrounding community. There is more to Bris sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it . . . until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family.

Not only is Kalynn one of my favorite authors, but she also happens to be one of my favorite people to talk to, and so Im very glad shes here to look back on the year that was with me. We talk about This Poison Heart and the next book in the series, This Wicked Fate, including those incredible covers by Raymond Sebastien, I probe her for updates about some exciting Cinderella is Dead news she dropped a while back, her next series The Vanquishers, and much, much more.

Happy holidays!

To order This Poison Heart and/or pre-order This Wicked Fate, click HERE!

Cover art by Raymond Sebastien.

Everything is Canon

Everything Is Canon: This Poison Heart

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Inside the issue: Sportsperson of the Year, among other notable honors and athletes that made 2021 memorable; The Year in Sports Media and The Year in Pictures; Djokovics wolf-like mentality; and more

NEW YORK, December 15, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In the Sportsperson of the Year Issue, on sale tomorrow, Sports Illustrated celebrates the years best athletes, moments, photos, media and plays. Sportsperson of the Year Tom Brady tells senior writer Jon Wertheim how hes forged his career longevity and what has changed since he last won the Sportsperson of the Year award in 2005. Muhammad Ali Legacy Award winner Billie Jean King, whose sportsmanship has also spanned decades, is profiled in the issue, along with Athletes of the Year Suni Lee and Caeleb Dressel and Breakthrough Athlete of the Year LaMelo Ball.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211215005789/en/

2021 Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year: Tom Brady (Photo: Business Wire)

On The Cover

According to Jon Wertheim, time is a construct for Tom Brady, measurable in ways other than revolutions around the sun. In his 22nd NFL season, he started his 10th Super Bowl and collected his seventh ring while also being named Super Bowl MVP for the fifth time. At age 44, he leads the league in touchdown passes. We know how statistically outlying his longevity is, but there is much more to the story of this timeless Sportsperson of the Year, only the third athlete to be honored by SI more than once.

Sportsperson of the Year Issue Features

Muhammad Ali Legacy Award, Bille Jean King: In the five decades since she took a stand against the pay disparity between men and women in tennis and won the tennis trailblazer and activist has been an unflinching champion for equality across society, by Jenny Vrentas.

Athletes of the Year: Stefanie Apstein details Suni Lee raising the bar for Team USA, and Pat Forde describes Caeleb Dressel exceeding expectations in Tokyo. According to Chris Mannix, breakthrough Athlete of the Year LaMelo Ball is transforming the previously faceless Hornets into a hot ticket.

The Year in Pictures: Significant photojournalism all shot on assignment for SI; several all-time greats augmented their legacies in 2021, while a new crop of rising stars wrote their first words in the history books.

Also in this issue:

Story continues

Novak Djokovic is the most controversial man in tennis, soon to be the most accomplished, says Jon Wertheim.

Making Mamba: Mark Bechtel reviews the new book The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality.

The Year in Media: SI names Formula 1 documentary Drive to Survive the Series of the Year, plus the Sports Media Controversy of the Year, Best Documentary of the Year, and more.

Alex Prewitt on the sudden shortage of an oft-overlooked football mainstay: the end zone pylon.

SI Full Frame: The dramatically lit shot of Herschel Walker from 1981 in pre-Superdome lightbulbs.

Faces in the Crowd: Identical twins Lex and Leo Young, 105-year-old Julia Hawkins, and soccer stand-out Seven Castain.

Order the Sportsperson of the Year Issue or Subscribe to Sports Illustrated today. Follow Sports Illustrated on Twitter and Instagram.

About Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated (SI) is an unparalleled and influential leader recognized for shaping modern culture and uniting athletes, teams and fans worldwide. SIs award-winning media enterprise brings powerful storytelling to life across platforms ranging from Emmy-winning video to the monthly print magazine with a 67-year heritage. Get in-depth features, probing profiles, and iconic and beloved photography from the best writers and photojournalists in the game at SI.com. In July, the American Society of Magazine Editors announced that SI won Best Sports and Fitness Cover in their 2021 contest with "Empty Arena."

About The Arena Group

The Arena Group creates dynamic, digital destinations that delight consumers with stories and news about the things they love their favorite sports teams, the inside scoop on personal finance, and the latest on lifestyle essentials. The company's robust media ecosystem brings together consumers, publishers and advertisers while harnessing the authority of trusted brands and the editorial prowess of leading writers and editors. For more on best-in-class capabilities in direct sales and programmatic advertising, data, SEO, social, and operations, visit http://www.thearenagroup.net.

About Sportsperson of the Year

For the first time in the history of the awards, Sports Illustrated unveiled its Sportsperson of the Year presented by FTX live during the Sports Illustrated Awards (SI) presented by Pepsi Stronger Together from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, FL on December 7, 2021. The most prestigious honor in sports media, Sportsperson of the Year, is an annual award given to an athlete, coach or team who best represents the spirit and ideals of sportsmanship, character and performance. Medium Rare produced this years event in conjunction with ABG Entertainment.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211215005789/en/

Contacts

Media Contact: Rachael Fink, comms@thearenagroup.net

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Sports Illustrateds Sportsperson of the Year Issue Celebrates Best Athletes, Teams, and Sports Moments of 2021 - Yahoo Finance

Longtime CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fans are used to episodes of the show without William Petersen, but that didn't mean anyone was happy to see him leave again. On Wednesday, CBS delivered mixed news for fans, as CSI: Vegas was renewed for a second season, but Petersen will not be back. It's not certain if Jorja Fox will return, either. Fans quickly took to Twitter to express their disappointment over the development.

CSI: Vegas finished its 10-episode first season on Dec. 8, and CBS picked up the show a week later. The series featured Petersen and Fox back as Gil Grissom and Sara Sidle, respectively. Paul Guilfoyle and Wallace Langham also returned as Jim Brass and David Hodges. Grissom and Sidle joined a new group of crime scene investigators played by Paula Newsome, Matt Lauria, Mandeep Dhillon, and Mel Rodriguez.

While all of the new actors are set to return, sources told Deadline that Petersen only signed on for the first season and will retain an executive producer credit on Season 2. Fox also did not sign on for Season 2, but producers are "hopeful" that she will be back so the show can at least continue with one original CSI cast member.

Unlike the original series, CSI: Vegas had a single, serialized storyline for its first 10 episodes. When the show began, Las Vegas Crime Lab chief Max Roby (Newsome) asked Grissom and Fox to come back to help in a case involving Hodges. They learn that the entire reputation of the crime lab could be at stake after Hodges is accused of doctoring evidence to close cases.

Thanks to the serialized nature of the show, CSI: Vegas surprisingly saw ratings go up as the season continued. The show averaged 6.81 million viewers with 7-day playback included. All 10 episodes are available to stream on Paramount+. ViacomCBS didn't release numbers, but sources told Deadline the show was doing well on the platform.

This isn't the first time Petersen has left the show behind. He was the face of the franchise until he chose to leave CSI: Crime Scene Investigation during Season 9. However, the show survived without him. He did return for guest appearances in Seasons 11 and 13, and starred in the 2015 finale movie "Immortality."

Scroll on to see how fans reacted to Petersen leaving the franchise behind again.

"Too bad, not really surprised but I still give it a shot and watch S2," one fan tweeted.

"I'd love to have William Petersen AND Jorja Fox back for S2 & if they don't I'll miss them bigtime, but I love the new team on [CSI]," one optimistic fan tweeted. "It's a different vibe but it is just as cool, the science is just as fascinating & the writing keeps me guessing."

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William Peterson Exits 'CSI: Vegas', and Fans Are Devastated - PopCulture.com

The human brain evolved to have two halves and a new review of previous research suggests that this dual design may confer special benefits. (iStock)

"If you're under 40 reading this article, you're probably not going to die unless you get a nasty disease."

Those are the words of esteemed futurologist Dr. Ian Pearson, who told The Sun he believes humans are very close to achieving "immortality" the ability to never die.

Humans have been trying to find a way to dodge death for years.

Ancient Greek alchemists tried to create a "philosopher's stone" that would let people live forever, but humans have yet to beat death.

However, Dr. Pearson tells The Sun that there are a number of different ways we could live forever as long as you can make it to the year 2050.

If you kick the bucket before then, you might be part of the last generation of humans to die of old age.

"There are quite a lot of people interested in living forever," explains Dr. Pearson. "There always has been, but the difference now is tech is improving so quickly, lots of people believe they can actually do it."

He reveals that one way to extend life would be to use bio-technologies and medicine to "keep renewing the body, and rejuvenating it".

"No one wants to live forever at 95 years old, but if you could rejuvenate the body to 29 or 30, you might want to do that."

This could be done in several ways, including genetic engineering that prevents (or reverses) the ageing of cells.

Alternatively, you could replace vital body organs with new parts.

Many scientists around the world are working on creating human organs using 3D printers loaded with living cells, which could one day make human organ donors redundant.

But Dr. Pearson thinks it's much more likely that we'll extend our lives a different way: robots.

"A long time before we get to fix our bodies and rejuvenate it every time we feel like, we'll be able to link our minds to the machine world so well, we'll effectively be living in the cloud," he explains.

"The mind will basically be in the cloud, and be able to use any android that you feel like to inhabit the real world."

He says that in 50 years time, we might be able to hire an android anywhere in the world "just like a hire car", and upload your consciousness into it.

"If you wanted to spend the evening in Australia, going to the Sydney opera house, you could use an android."

This means that even when your original bodies dies, you'd still be able to use your digital mind stored on a computer and live in the world using highly realistic robot bodies.

"The current state ofsex dollsare starting to look quite human-like. Give them another 30 years of development and they'll be extremely human-like," Dr. Pearson reveals.

"You can take any android body and they will look human-like, and download whatever mind you want. You could share one with someone else, or have one yourself, or own dozens of them.

"You might even have ones of different genders and different ages, some old, young, female, male there might be new genders by 2050 as well, so several other ones you can pick too."

He explains that we'll have to wait until around "2045, 2050" before we'll be able to create these strong brain-to-machine links, and says the cost will be very high initially.

The first people to use robot bodies to become immortal will be the rich, but then "the price will gradually come down."

One day your body dies maybe you get hit by a bus or a nasty disease but it doesn't matter, because your mind will still be there. You'll be able to use an android body instead of the organic one you just lost.

For normal people on everyday salaries, it's more likely that you'll have to wait a little longer.

"By 2060, people like you or I will be able to buy it, and by 2070 people in poor countries on modest incomes will be able to buy it.

"Everyone will have a chance to have immortality, a sort of electronic immortality.

"After 10, 15, 20 years, the price comes down to hundreds of pounds, rather than millions.

"It could be provided as part of the NHS. You might be able to buy premium offerings on a private subscription, or you might get a basic presence on a network and be allowed to use an android body."

Dr. Pearson says we'll have to limit the number of android bodies people can own, however.

"You might be given one free on the NHS, but you might be limited to no more than two or three.

"Rich people that can afford it would probably want to have loads of different bodies, and if your mind is online, there's nothing to stop them replicating it millions of times over.

"You wouldn't want to live in a world where there are millions of Kardashians walking around, where they can afford to do it and nobody else can.

"We would need to limit the number of bodies for environmental impact.

"Imaging taking everybody in the UK. Once the economics allows everyone to have 10 bodies each, there would be 600 million people living here."

But if our minds are online, do we even need robot bodies? We could all just live in a computer simulation quite happily, according to Dr. Pearson.

"You could spend most of your time online in the virtual world, of course anywhere in the world on any computer.

"If you're online all the time, you could have a fantastic life online. It would be all virtual, so you could have anything you want. 72 virgins if that's what drives you; all of that, because it's totally imaginary.

"You could make as much fun as you could possibly imagine online. You might still want to come into the real world.

You could link your mind to millions of other minds, and have unlimited intelligence, and be in multiple places at once.

The tricky bit is surviving until the technology becomes widely available.

"By 2050, it will only really be for the rich and famous.

"Most people on middle-class incomes and reasonable working-class incomes can probably afford this in the 2060s.So anyone 90 or under by 2060.

"If you were born sometime in 1970 onwards, that would make you 48 this year. So anybody under 50 has got a good chance of it, and anyone under 40 almost definitely will have access to this.

"Most of your readers are probably going to live forever," Dr. Pearson tells us.

This story originally appeared in The Sun.

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Want to live forever? You just have to make it ... - Fox News

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A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality (TV Series ...

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has some strong feelings when it comes to our fate as a civilization.

During an interview at The Wall Street Journals CEO Council Summit on Monday, Musk warned that letting people live longer or, presumably, forever through new technologies may actually be a really bad idea.

It is important for us to die because most of the time people dont change their mind, they just die, Musk said at the event. If you live forever, we might become a very ossified society where new ideas cannot succeed.

Musk also added that hes not aware of any secret technology to combat aging.

His ideas shouldnt come as a shock to anybody. Musk is an ideas man who has benefited immensely from pushing for innovation and change for better or worse. In his world, theres no room for rigid and obsolete lines of thinking.

Which also explains his continued efforts to push back against the US regulators who have kept an increasingly close eye on his operations. The news also comes after he called for age limits to be set for US government leaders earlier this month.

Musk, a 50-year-old father of six, also argued at the event that a rapidly declining birthrate on a global scale is one of the biggest risks to civilization.

Allowing people to live longer lives,in other words, would result in rapidly aging populations, which would lead to further declining birthrates as fewer people are able to have children.

Its far from the first time Musk has warned of declining populations being the eventual cause of our downfall. Earlier this year, he took potshots at fellow space company billionaire Jeff Bezos for investing millions in a mysterious anti-aging research startup in Silicon Valley.

And if it doesnt work, hes gonna sue death! Musk added derisively at the time, referring to Bezos litigious tendencies.

Despite all of facetiousness and flippant comments in the past, Musks warnings arent completely off the mark. Birthrates are indeed declining worldwide and COVID-19 has only heightened the trend.

Even China, the most populous country in the world, has faced precipitous drops in birthrates, causing leaders to ring the alarm bells.

With demographics skewing older in may parts of the world, humanity could really be in for a decline,and it could kick off before the year 2100, according to experts.

But whether thats really a bad thing remains to be seen. The economic impacts of a shrinking labor force may be self-evident, but given our species immensely harmful footprint on our planet, it may not be such a bad thing after all.

READ MORE: Elon Musk thinks you should die [Insider]

More on Elon: Elon Musk Says Civilization Is Going to Crumble Unless People Have More Children

Care about supporting clean energy adoption? Find out how much money (and planet!) you could save by switching to solar power at UnderstandSolar.com. By signing up through this link, Futurism.com may receive a small commission.

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Elon Musk Says That Immortality Tech Would Be Very Dangerous - Futurism

Hydras are regenerative all-stars.

Scientists have new insights into the workings of hydras, one of the few animals that can, arguably, live forever.

Hydrasare tiny organisms related to jellyfish. They have simple bodies, made up of a cylindrical tube called a body column, with a head structure at the top and a sticky foot on the opposite end (which they use to hold themselves in place). What's remarkable about hydras is that they don't seem to age, thanks to some incredible regenerative powers. Chop off a hydra's head and it just grows right back.

Unlock the biggest mysteries of our planet and beyond with the CNET Science newsletter. Delivered Mondays.

This process has long been a source of fascination for researchers eager to understand how it works down to the genetic level. A new study published Wednesday in Genome Biology and Evolution digs into how a hydra's genes are regulated -- a field known as epigenetics -- and how this allows the creature to regenerate its own head.

A key finding is that the process for head regeneration is different than the one for reproducing, which happens through an asexual process called "budding." Hydras reproduce by forming "buds" along the body column that eventually develop into new, independent animals with their own heads.

"Even though the result is the same (a hydra head), gene expression is much more variable during regeneration," says Aide Macias-Muoz, a biologist at the University of California, Irvine and the paper's lead author.

The study provides some new insights into the processes behind regeneration, which have been something of a mystery to scientists. It finds that hydras use sequences of DNA called "enhancers" that regulate regeneration on the genetic level.

Macias-Muoz says this suggests some of the mechanisms hydras use were passed down through evolution, and may even have made it all the way down to mammals, including humans.

This prompts some fascinating questions: If some of the same genetic programming that allows hydras to regenerate was passed down to humans, then is the fountain of youth present in the guts of our own cells, just waiting to be tapped?

Unfortunately, we're still far off from being able to answer such massively consequential questions, but Macias-Muoz and colleagues believe digging deep into the genomes of hydras and other species is an important step down that road.

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Hydras can live forever, and the key to their immortality is in the genes - CNET