ever wondered just how far the rabbit hole of human lifespan goes well what if I told you that our lives might be Limitless at least that's the theory that some scientists are cooking up there's this thing called The hayflick Limit it's named after Leonard hylick he discovered that our cells can only go through a certain number of Divisions before they hang up their divide and conquer hats think of it like a batch of Play-Doh you can Squish and shape it all you want but after a while it starts getting a bit crumbly and less squishy
our cells are a bit like that Playdoh they can only divide and multiply so many times before they start losing their Mojo and that's why each one of us has this thing called a biological clock it's not an actual clock of course more like a built-in timer that counts down the number of times your cells can divide and multiply it's one of the reasons why as time goes on we notice the signs of aging and the passing years our cells just stop regenerating but is there a way to extend either this limit or remove it
all together people have been wondering about this for ages back in the past humans had some pretty quirky ideas about lifespans some even thought that living for centuries was like a walk in the park have you heard of Methuselah it's a story about a man who lived a super long time almost 1,000 years according to the tales there was this magical tree called the tree of life and if you managed to take a nibble of its fruit or had a sip of its Enchanted sap you'd be rewarded with many extra years added to your life
in different parts of the ancient world people were convinced that hidden away somewhere was the mythical Fountain of Youth they pictured it as a sparkling spring Legend had it that if you took a swig from this Fountain wrinkles would disappear gray hair would turn back to its original color and there would be no more aches and pains many explorers tried to find it but as you can guess they didn't really succeed in ancient China people wanted to find the elixir of Life a special potion that could make them Immortal Emperor chin XI hang was so
determined to live forever that he even sent people to look for the ingredients for this Elixir he even spread this message to far away Villages the story ends rather tragically the emperor tried some really weird stuff called cinear he thought this was the secret ingredient to keep him young but that red stuff was actually poisonous and unfortunately because of his obsession with living forever he went to the great Beyond at just 49 years old ironic isn't it but it shows that even the most ancient people have already tried their best to find a way to
live forever well Recent research may be showing us that the answer to this riddle is very close researchers decided to take a look at some very old Italians aged between 105 and 110 to find out more about this when you're younger the chances of you heading to the great beyond rise quickly you start with very low chances but they double about every eight years it's called gompertz's law it seems to work for folks from their 30s to their 80s but when it comes to really old ages researchers aren't on the same page some think that
if the risk keeps going up super fast others believe that the curve kind of chills out and slows down later in life so the scientists decided to chat with about 3,800 very old Italians they got hold of birth and survival certificates to make sure they weren't being tricked by age exaggeration and instead of lumping people into age groups they followed individual life stories from year to year and they got some incredible results they found out the chances of these folks passing away kind of slow down when they get super ancient it's like the curve of
getting old hits the brakes after age 105 of course this data is all about Italy we're not totally sure if this applies everywhere but still this discovery is pretty awesome and brings us one step closer to immortality the researchers want to dig even deeper they want to find out why it works that way maybe it's just that super old people are special maybe there's something about the way our bodies work that slows down as we get really old either way it's a mystery that's still unraveling and with more studies like this we might just unlock
the next big clue about how humans age in recent years we have had many breakthroughs and Milestones in extending human lifespan you know how some creatures out there seem to age super slowly like turtles we call them the species with negligible sence well scientists have been trying to find their secret for years now maybe if we looked at how these Critters work we could learn how to slow down or even reverse our own aging process that's what regenerative medicine and cellular Rejuvenation are all about for example smart folks from Harvard Medical School the University of
Maine and MIT teamed up to find out how to make cells act young again they came up with something new they looked at the way genes work and even checked out proteins in cells then they found six chemical combos that turned back the clock on cells really fast after that scientists mixed up special chemicals that made cells feel fresh and Youthful just like they were back in the day and it worked its magic in less than a week this discovery also opens the door to treating all sorts of age related stuff from wrinkles to sore
joints now these scientists are thinking about making a pill that could make you feel young again futurist Ray kwi thinks that we can achieve immortality in just 7 years he mentions how AI is getting smarter and smarter so KW thinks that by the 1030 we might have super tiny robots that can fix our bodies from the inside out like they'll go into our cells and make sure everything is working perfectly no more sickness or getting old how awesome would that be something like this is definitely possible in the future but most people aren't so sure
that kuril's crystal ball is super accurate even if we achieve something like this someday there are big doubts that it will happen during the next 7 years the big question is should we even try to achieve something like that some people are totally on board with this idea who wouldn't want to be around to see flying cars and other future Technologies but imagine a world where people don't just retire in their 60s or 70s they keep working until they're pushing 100 and more sounds cool for some but for others it might feel like being stuck
in a [Music] nightmare or for example imagine if your great great great grandpa was still alive and kicking and not only him but the entire family all the relatives would you have enough space for everyone at Thanksgiving dinner if we all start living a whole lot longer we might need bigger houses more food and tons of other stuff our planet might start feeling crowded are we ready for that and that's just the tip of the iceberg if we live forever won't life get a bit stale some believe that knowing life has an expiration date makes
us cherish every moment of it what would you choose would you like to live forever and think that it's going to be a wild Journey with surprises around every corner or would you choose to enjoy the ride of life as it is cherishing your little moments share your opinions with us that's it for today so hey if you pacified your curiosity then give the video a like and share it with your friends or if you want more just click on these videos and stay on the bright side
