Immortality: Can we live forever?

The end of life – it’s a reality that terrifies us and motivates us. Death is a humbling reality – but what if life had no end? Cutting-edge science embarks on a bold mission to extend human life and may soon bring immortality within our grasp.

Is immortality possible?

The idea of immortality or living forever might seem like one that’s limited to fairy tales, particularly if you were born in 1800, when the average life expectancy was 35 years. Now, though, men in the U.S. have a life expectancy of 75 years; women, 80. If life expectancy can more than double in 200 years, then might it double again? Could it do so infinitely? Medical advances have already doubled human life expectancy in past centuries. But can humans ever beat death altogether? Will death remain inevitable or can we live forever.

The second law of thermodynamics states that everything falls apart eventually, including the human body. Anything and everything in the world has the tendency to go from order to disorder, it’s a process known as entropy. World is made of atoms and atoms in turn obey second law of thermodynamics. Nothing is immune to entropy, not even the cells in our body and that is why we age and die. But it turns out that there is a loop hole to the law of entropy.

Some researchers believe that there’s a limit on how many years a human being could live, the maximum being 125. Others see a world in which we have centenarians walking around with people who have lived for 500 or 1,000 years. Diseases related to aging, like dementia and heart disease, currently block us from reaching that point. Our body parts wear out from use. In the quest for immortality, then, scientists are focused on how to stop aging from occurring within the body. One method that has demonstrably increased the lifespan of creatures such as mice is a calorie-restricted diet. To follow this diet, you must cut your caloric intake by 30 percent while still consuming all necessary nutrients.

This eating plan has proven difficult for humans to maintain, so researchers are trying to figure out how, exactly, fewer calories lengthen life. If they can solve that puzzle, they may be able to replicate the mechanism in pill form. Anti-aging pills could also be used to halt the production of free radicals, which are molecules that cause increasing damage within the body as we age. Researchers are also considering whether compounds like resveratrol, which is found in red wine, could be effective in pill form, as resveratrol might have the ability to interfere with the aging process at the genetic level. Some scientists think that telomerase, an enzyme that mends protective coverings on cells, is the answer, while some would-be centenarians have begun injections of human growth hormone, hoping they will stop the body from aging.

Anti-ageing enthusiasts say that as our perspectives change and science and technology advance exponentially, new solutions will emerge. Space colonization, for example, along with dramatically improved resource management, could resolve the concerns associated with long life.

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