• Question: Do you think that in the future we will be able to live forever?

    Asked by Olivia-de-Larratea to Ben, Lizzie, Francis, Max, Sian on 6 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Ben Mulhearn

      Ben Mulhearn answered on 6 Mar 2018:

      I’m not sure. The increase in our age has slowed down over recent years. Our bodies tend to ‘wear out’ as we get older. for instance, our heart is a pump which pumps continually for our whole lives, and therefore is liable to wearing out a little. Maybe with major leaps in technology we could live for longer, such as bionics hearts, but I do think this is a long way off. Remember, our brains wear out too, and that is the most complicated organ, if not THING, ever known to man.

    • Photo: Max Jamilly

      Max Jamilly answered on 6 Mar 2018:

      I’m also not sure. There are some fixed limits to the number of times our cells can divide and the number of times we can copy our DNA before it gets too damaged, but it’s definitely not impossible that we could use medicines to overcome these limits eventually!

    • Photo: Sian Richardson

      Sian Richardson answered on 6 Mar 2018:

      Probably not forever. Scientist are looking at nature to investigate this. Telomeres play an important role in protecting our DNA during replication, each time the cells replicate they get a little shorter –
      acting like a clock the cells can only replicate a number of times before damage sets in. Ceratin animals have longer telomeres which help these animals live longer. Sometimes it to do with metabolism how long an animal lives. There are also animals like salamanders can re-generate whole limbs if needs be.

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