Some species are immortal but dying of old age is humanity’s secret weapon – The Telegraph

Wards wry survey of the weird world of immortalism goes heavy on the early history of cryonics (freezing corpses until we work out how to revive them) but it is light on the science of what we actually know about ageing. To fill this gap, at least partially, I recommend Methuselahs Zoo () by the zoologist Steven M Austad.

Austads big beef and hes not alone in this is that too many experiments are done on mice. For anyone interested in ageing, the trouble with mice is that they dont live very long, even relative to their size. Which terrestrial mammals live the longest? The answer to this, funnily enough, is humans. As Austad points out, mice should really be experimenting on us.

The rationale of this smartly written book can be summed up by whats known as Orgels second rule, after the British chemist Leslie Orgel: namely, that evolution is cleverer than you are. So if you want to know how to extend the longevity of humans, one way might be to examine the superior longevity of other animals, then try to work out how they manage it.

As weve seen, this is tricky, since humans already have a high longevity quotient, yet there are animals that outdo us and this gives Austad his cue for an entertaining tour of the whole animal kingdom in all its mad variety. I had no idea I would so enjoy reading about the naked mole rat, or indeed the human fish, a type of salamander that lurks in Balkan caves.

The one disappointing thing about this urbane volume is that even though Austad knows more about his subject than anyone on the planet, on the key points he still doesnt know much. His chapters often end by asking rhetorically what lessons we have learnt from the exceptional longevity of such-and-such a beast only to conclude that, as yet, the answer is none. More research is needed.

Specifically, Austad recommends we trigger a Manhattan Project to uncover the longevity secrets of birds. Or bats, for that matter. In this, he brings to mind Nikolai Fedorov, the Russian philosopher and godfather of immortalism, who argued in the 19th century that the quest to combat death should be put on a war footing.

Now that Jeff Bezos and other multi-billionaires have put their financial heft behind the quest to understand ageing, this may be what were getting. For anyone with cash to spare, Id recommend channelling some of it towards the katabatic heroes at the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences. New technologies often originate in identifying and harnessing new scientific principles. In this case, the researchers would be descending into the unknowns of lifes thermodynamics and a theory of immortality.

Like the Greek hero Pirithous, who failed to make it back from hell, they might never be seen again. On the other hand, theres a chance they might return with quite a story to tell.

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Some species are immortal but dying of old age is humanity's secret weapon - The Telegraph