If you have stock options, why would you want to die? In Silicon Valley, researchers are endeavoring to unlock the biological secrets which in the near term would allow a person to slow down the clock considerably once middle age is reached. Further down the road, there would be an endless summer. The Palo Alto Longevity Prize has been established to encourage such work. From Josie Ensor in the Telegraph:

A person only becomes aware of their body’s homeostasis when they start losing it in middle age: often characterised by the loss of ability to tolerate cold or hot weather, or feeling nauseous after a roller-coaster ride where you once felt exhilarated.

“Up until about 45 years old, most people die from external stressors such as trauma or infection, but as we get older we die of what looks like a loss of intrinsic capacities,” he tells The Sunday Telegraph.

Increased homeostatic capacity could allow people to live beyond 120 years – the theoretical maximum human lifespan.

Scientists could effectively slow down the body’s clock and enable us to remain middle aged for 50 years or more, meaning we can feel 50 when we are really 80. The future could see us not just living longer, but staying healthier for longer.

“This isn’t like plastic surgery where you’re papering over the cracks, this is actually making a person younger from the inside out,” Dr [Joon] Yun says.

The first half of the prize will be awarded next year to the team that can restore the homeostatic capacity of an ageing adult mammal to that of a young one, thereby reversing the effects of ageing.

The second half to the team that can then extend the lifespan of their chosen mammal by 50 per cent of published norms.•