• Question: Could you develope something so that you could live forever (e.g a medicine to make immortal) ?

    Asked by josieb123 to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 18 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by itssmeemayaa.
    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 18 Jun 2012:

      Hi josieb123! There are actually immortal animals, which could teach us how to go about it! So yes, I think there may be ways we could do it.

      Turritopsis nutricula is a tiny jellyfish that just regenerates itself, never gets old and can live forever. There are lots of other animals that get close to that record – lobsters and flatworms for example. Here’s a list!

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_long-living_organisms

    • Photo: Amy Birch

      Amy Birch answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      Hi josieb123,
      Studies on worms have shown that there is one specific gene that can control how long an animal lives, so if we are able to switch off that gene in theory we could live forever!

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