The Race to Live Forever
- Ravichandran Harini
- 23 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Ravichandran Harini, Jadetimes Staff
Can Science Slow Down Human Ageing?
For centuries, explorers chased legends of a fountain that could restore youth with a single sip. Today the search continues, not in hidden jungles but in gleaming laboratories, where scientists sequence genomes, engineer cells, and feed biological data into artificial intelligence in pursuit of the same ancient dream. The question has simply changed its language: can science actually slow ageing, or does immortality remain, as it always has been, just out of reach?
Ageing, at its core, is a slow accumulation of biological damage. Cells divide fewer times as they age, DNA accumulates errors, proteins misfold, and tissues lose their ability to repair themselves. One key culprit is the shortening of telomeres, the protective caps on our chromosomes, while another is cellular senescence, in which damaged cells stop dividing but linger, releasing inflammatory signals that harm neighboring tissue.
Researchers are attacking these processes from multiple angles. Studies of calorie restriction and metabolic pathways have revealed how diet influences longevity, while epigenetics, the study of how genes are switched on and off, is uncovering ways cellular age might be reversed rather than merely tracked. Stem cell and regenerative medicine aim to replace or repair worn-out tissue directly. A landmark 2024 study in Cell found that the diabetes drug metformin slowed multiple markers of ageing in primates, including inflammation and DNA damage.
Artificial intelligence has become an unlikely accelerant in this effort. By scanning enormous biological datasets, AI systems can flag promising drug candidates, predict disease risk years in advance, and tailor treatments to individual genetic profiles. Hong Kong-based Insilico Medicine has used AI to help design an experimental lung fibrosis drug now in clinical trials, one of several attempts to translate machine learning into life-extending medicine. Longevity research funding has followed suit, with global investment surging roughly 220 percent between 2023 and 2024.
Yet the promise carries real tension. Extending healthy lifespan could ease suffering and reduce disease burden, but it also raises hard questions about who can afford such treatments, how healthcare systems will cope, and what a far older global population means for labour, pensions, and resources. The World Health Organization projects the number of people aged 60 and older will nearly double, from 1.1 billion in 2023 to 2.1 billion by 2050.
Science has not found immortality, and may never. But it is steadily redrawing the boundary between ageing and disease, offering future generations not eternal life, but potentially more years lived in health.
Comments