Category Archives: Human Longevity

Last week, Liz told AgentCooperthat he was the only person in the world she completely trusted. At the time, she was trying to get away with a patented kidnapping/murder combo and he was waving around his morality flags like one of those inflatable creaturesoutside a car dealership because he couldnt even recognize the person shed become anymore; but tonight, ol Coops gets the unrecognizable tables turned on him. Cooper hasnt exactly kidnapped his ex-spouse and watched them strangle someone with a chain, but he did let a billionaire slip a few past the murder net in the name of appeasing slimy Tom Connolly and keeping himself in the medical trial thats currently keeping him alive. Morality is funny that way the threat of its imminence, and the fight against it, will lead people to do all sorts of things they never could have predicted for themselves.

Lets call his episode what it was: glue (not filler). It arranged some important pieces on the Blacklist chessboard so that at some point in thenear future, Red can come in and light those pieces on fire with a blow torch and then probably blood angel them, or whatever. Or, hopefully, all the seemingly random things we learned tonight will come to mean much more very soon.It seems we might finally beto the point in the series where every Blacklister relates directly to something we as the audience are at least somewhat clued in ongoodness knows there are enough story arcs up in the air at any given time to do so. Surely were all pastbelieving thatRed is doing any of this work for the task force any reason other than those directly related to the welfare of himself and Lizzie. Im fine with not knowing why Red needs to have Hobbs on his side, just as long as I know were spending time with Hobbs for a reason.

Tonight, there was even a big picture purpose to secondary Blacklister Dr. Powell, and that purpose was explicitly Fulcrum-related, a story line thats pretty important tolet me get the wording right, herethe world, but hasbeen idling for quite a while now. Still, this wasnt an episode that sent the mind racing;but something about its mortality themelife, death, birthdaysmade it surprisingly emotional. Maybe it was all the frontal lobe talk, maybe it was missing Ressler having, yknow, lines this season, or maybe it was seeing little Lizzie Keen with a full forehead of bangs, but I got a little choked up as Liz shared her birthday wine with likely the only man she should actually completely trust at the end of the hour.

And then Tom showed up on Lizs doorstep, back bloody-eyed and bushy-bearded from Germany, and I was confused about everythingall over again.

THE LONGEVITY INITIATIVE, NO. 97

First of all, props on that name, I like an immortality research project that just puts all its card on the table from the get-go. Unfortunately, The Longevity Initiative has a few renegade cards that it doesnt quite seem to have a handle on. The episode opens on a scientist lingering in front of a tank full of jellyfish arguing with a man named Lloyd about whetherLloyd is going to keep helping him with some questionable experiments. Those experiments arent elaborated on, but the next thing you know, Lloyd is being pulled over on the highway with three bodies in the back of his produce truck that all have their scalps missing, brains sticking out of the skull like a Chapstick tube. So, Lloyd shoots the cop and makes a run for it. Because Lloyd is a man of many morally reprehensible talents.

Speaking of, Red has a new assignment for Lizzie, and they dont know it yet, but it has to do with Lloyd and his truck o brains. But before he gets down to business, Red delivers Lizzie a bottle of wine that was made from grape vines that she and her adoptive father Sam harvested together. Its her 31stbirthday today, you see. Tom also called her earlier to tell her to have a nice dinner at Wing Yees, and also, hes in a ton of trouble and needs helpoh hey, theres the Major pulling up with ambiguous intentions, gotta go! So blessed to have such consistently thoughtfulmen in her life, that Lizzie.

Now that Red has made Liz wonder just how long hes really been a part of her life, and told her that his yogi thinks time doesnt exist, he has the perfect segue to tell her about the Longevity Initiative. Its a private company run by Roger Hobbs, a tech billionaire that funds ongoing experiments dedicated to extending human life indefinitely as a sort of pet project; and judging by the bodies that just turned up in the produce truck, theyve moved into the human experimentation phase. Luckily, Red knows Hobbs personally, so he sends Liz and Ressler to have a little chat with him before they jump to any conclusions about his desire to be immortal.

NEXT: The immortal life research of Roger Hobbs

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'Blacklist' recap: 'The Longevity Initiative'

Last week, Liz told AgentCooperthat he was the only person in the world she completely trusted. At the time, she was trying to get away with a patented kidnapping/murder combo and he was waving around his morality flags like one of those inflatable creaturesoutside a car dealership because he couldnt even recognize the person shed become anymore; but tonight, ol Coops gets the unrecognizable tables turned on him. Cooper hasnt exactly kidnapped his ex-spouse and watched them strangle someone with a chain, but he did let a billionaire slip a few past the murder net in the name of appeasing slimy Tom Connolly and keeping himself in the medical trial thats currently keeping him alive. Morality is funny that way the threat of its imminence, and the fight against it, will lead people to do all sorts of things they never could have predicted for themselves.

Lets call his episode what it was: glue (not filler). It arranged some important pieces on the Blacklist chessboard so that at some point in thenear future, Red can come in and light those pieces on fire with a blow torch and then probably blood angel them, or whatever. Or, hopefully, all the seemingly random things we learned tonight will come to mean much more very soon.It seems we might finally beto the point in the series where every Blacklister relates directly to something we as the audience are at least somewhat clued in ongoodness knows there are enough story arcs up in the air at any given time to do so. Surely were all pastbelieving thatRed is doing any of this work for the task force any reason other than those directly related to the welfare of himself and Lizzie. Im fine with not knowing why Red needs to have Hobbs on his side, just as long as I know were spending time with Hobbs for a reason.

Tonight, there was even a big picture purpose to secondary Blacklister Dr. Powell, and that purpose was explicitly Fulcrum-related, a story line thats pretty important tolet me get the wording right, herethe world, but hasbeen idling for quite a while now. Still, this wasnt an episode that sent the mind racing;but something about its mortality themelife, death, birthdaysmade it surprisingly emotional. Maybe it was all the frontal lobe talk, maybe it was missing Ressler having, yknow, lines this season, or maybe it was seeing little Lizzie Keen with a full forehead of bangs, but I got a little choked up as Liz shared her birthday wine with likely the only man she should actually completely trust at the end of the hour.

And then Tom showed up on Lizs doorstep, back bloody-eyed and bushy-bearded from Germany, and I was confused about everythingall over again.

THE LONGEVITY INITIATIVE, NO. 97

First of all, props on that name, I like an immortality research project that just puts all its card on the table from the get-go. Unfortunately, The Longevity Initiative has a few renegade cards that it doesnt quite seem to have a handle on. The episode opens on a scientist lingering in front of a tank full of jellyfish arguing with a man named Lloyd about whetherLloyd is going to keep helping him with some questionable experiments. Those experiments arent elaborated on, but the next thing you know, Lloyd is being pulled over on the highway with three bodies in the back of his produce truck that all have their scalps missing, brains sticking out of the skull like a Chapstick tube. So, Lloyd shoots the cop and makes a run for it. Because Lloyd is a man of many morally reprehensible talents.

Speaking of, Red has a new assignment for Lizzie, and they dont know it yet, but it has to do with Lloyd and his truck o brains. But before he gets down to business, Red delivers Lizzie a bottle of wine that was made from grape vines that she and her adoptive father Sam harvested together. Its her 31stbirthday today, you see. Tom also called her earlier to tell her to have a nice dinner at Wing Yees, and also, hes in a ton of trouble and needs helpoh hey, theres the Major pulling up with ambiguous intentions, gotta go! So blessed to have such consistently thoughtfulmen in her life, that Lizzie.

Now that Red has made Liz wonder just how long hes really been a part of her life, and told her that his yogi thinks time doesnt exist, he has the perfect segue to tell her about the Longevity Initiative. Its a private company run by Roger Hobbs, a tech billionaire that funds ongoing experiments dedicated to extending human life indefinitely as a sort of pet project; and judging by the bodies that just turned up in the produce truck, theyve moved into the human experimentation phase. Luckily, Red knows Hobbs personally, so he sends Liz and Ressler to have a little chat with him before they jump to any conclusions about his desire to be immortal.

NEXT: The immortal life research of Roger Hobbs

Read this article:
'The Blacklist' recap: 'The Longevity Initiative'

IMAGE:The testicle from a male trout which contains a developing egg is an example of "intersex " conditions that can result from pollution. view more

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Deep-water marine fish living on the continental slopes at depths from 2,000 feet to one mile have liver pathologies, tumors and other health problems that may be linked to human-caused pollution, one of the first studies of its type has found.

The research, conducted in the Bay of Biscay west of France, also discovered the first case of a deep water fish species with an "intersex" condition, a blend of male and female sex organs. The sampling was done in an area with no apparent point-source pollution, and appears to reflect general ocean conditions.

The findings have been published in Marine Environmental Research, by scientists from Oregon State University; the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science in the United Kingdom; and other agencies. It was supported by the European Union.

The research is of particular interest, OSU researchers said, when contrasted to other studies done several years ago in national parks of the American West, which also found significant pollution and fish health impacts, including male fish that had been "feminized" and developed eggs.

"In areas ranging from pristine, high mountain lakes of the United States to ocean waters off the coasts of France and Spain, we've now found evidence of possible human-caused pollution that's bad enough to have pathological impacts on fish," said Michael Kent, a professor of microbiology in the OSU College of Science, co-author on both these research projects and an international expert on fish disease.

"Deep in the ocean one might have thought that the level of contamination and its biological impact would be less," Kent said. "That may not be the case. The pathological changes we're seeing are clearly the type associated with exposure to toxins and carcinogens."

However, linking these changes in the deep water fish to pollution is preliminary at this time, the researchers said, because these same changes may also be caused by naturally-occurring compounds. Follow up chemical analyses would provide more conclusive links with the pathological changes and man's activity, they said.

Few, if any health surveys of this type have been done on the fish living on the continental slopes, the researchers said. Most past studies have looked only at their parasite fauna, not more internal biological problems such as liver damage. The issues are important, however, since there's growing interest in these areas as a fisheries resource, as other fisheries on the shallower continental shelf become depleted.

As the sea deepens along these continental slopes, it's been known that it can act as a sink for heavy metal contaminants such as mercury, cadmium and lead, and organic contaminants such as PCBs and pesticides. Some of the "intersex" fish that have been discovered elsewhere are also believed to have mutated sex organs caused by "endocrine disrupting chemicals" that can mimic estrogens.

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A mile deep, ocean fish facing health impacts from human pollution

Human Longevity Secrets: Avoid Toxins

By: Top Sites

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Human Longevity Secrets: Avoid Toxins - Video

Human life expectancy varies significantly across the world, ranging from just 45years in Swaziland to 82 years in Switzerland. How does that compare to the planets longest-living animals? TheGalpagos tortoiseiswell known for its exceptionally long lifespan and some animals have reached the grand old age of 177. Harriet, a tortoise reputed to have been collected by Charles Darwin, died in 2006 aged 175. Another tortoise named Adwaita, who also died in 2006, may well have been 250 years old at the time of his death.

Aldabra giant tortoises from Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles also live long lives, but like their elderlycousinsin the GalpagosIslands, their exact ages are difficult to record as they tend to outlive their human observers. Discovery News put an interesting ranking of the planets longest-living animals together and you can find the top 10 listed in the infographic below.

UNSPECIFIED OCTOBER 28: Galapagos giant tortoise (Testudo elephantopus) on lawn (Photo by DEA / F. GALARDI/De Agostini/Getty Images)

The prize for the oldest animal in the world goes to the Ocean Quahog, a bivalve mollusc living on the seabed of the North Atlantic Ocean. They show amazing longevity, living approximately 400 years. One example, named Ming the clam, had a reported age of 507 years, which would make it the longest living non-colonial metazoan species with an authenticated lifespan ever discovered. The Bowhead Whale and Rougheye Rockfish also live extremely long lives about 211 and 205 years respectively!

*Click below to enlarge (charted byStatista)

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These Are The Planet's Longest-Living Animals [Infographic]

NEW YORK, March 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The lucrative growth rate of the augmentation market in the future is the major driving factor for the human augmentation market. Human augmentation has not only made human beings' life easier but has also resulted in its longevity. In the product category of human augmentation, the "wearable augmentation" is expected to have a higher market size as compared to the "in-built augmentation". The major reason behind its large market size is the growing demand for sophisticated gadgets. The eye-wear holds the highest market share in the North American human augmentation market, due to the presence of a large number of market players, which are launching new products in this region. The North American market is estimated to grow at the highest growth rate between 2014 and 2020.

The global human augmentation market is expected to reach up to $1135 million by 2020, at a CAGR of 43.5% between 2014 and 2020.

The global human augmentation market has been segmented into three categories that include: products segment, application, and geography. The product segment includes the in-built augmentation and wearable augmentation types. The application segment includes the medical, defense, industrial, and others segments. The human augmentation market has also been segmented on the basis of geography. The market by geography has been classified into various economic regions such as North America, Europe, APAC, and ROW.

The major players that offer various products in the human augmentation market are B-Temia Inc. (U.S.), BrainGate Company (U.S.), Ekso Bionics Holdings, Inc. (U.S.), Google Inc. (U.S.), Raytheon Company (U.S.), Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (South Korea), and Vuzix Corporation (U.S.).

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Human Augmentation Market by Product, Application, & Geography - Global Forecast to 2020

2015 1st Annual UCLA HBA Healthcare Conference: Lunch Keynote - Peter Diamandis
Peter H. Diamandis, M.D. X PRIZE Foundation, Chairman CEO Human Longevity Inc. (HLI), Co-Founder Vice-Chairman.

By: UCLA Anderson HBA

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2015 1st Annual UCLA HBA Healthcare Conference: Lunch Keynote - Peter Diamandis - Video

Whale females, like humans, live well past menopause, a trait possibly selected for because their knowledge base can help their entire clan survive. Dina Fine Maron reports

Women have a biological cap on their reproductive years. And from an evolutionary standpoint researchers have long wondered why human female longevity extends well past fertility. Other than humans, only short-finned pilot whales and killer whales live three or more decades after menopause, some even reaching their 90s. Male whales, which are far less likely to be followed by group-mates than are females, seldom survive past 50.

Now a study of killer whales offers some clues about why evolution may have selected for such long life: older females have accrued what the study authors call repositories of ecological knowledge, that can help their entire group survive.

The researchers examined more than 750 hours of killer whale video. They saw that older, wizened females were the individuals most likely to lead younger whales to salmon feeding grounds, especially during lean times. The study is in the journal Current Biology. [Lauren J. N. Brent et al, Ecological Knowledge, Leadership, and the Evolution of Menopause in Killer Whales]

The work provides the first evidence that the advantage conferred via the knowledge held by elderly female whales may be behind the adaptation for their post-fertility longevity. In humans, an analogous explanation for post-menopausal longevity is part of whats called the grandmother effect, the constellation of attributes that make older women especially valuable to the community. Whale grandmas appear to be highly valuable, too.

Dina Fine Maron

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]

2015 Scientific American, a Division of Nature America, Inc.

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Whale Grandmas' Longevity Linked to Knowledge

The Immortalists - IndeeChannel.Com
WATCH THE MOVIE HERE: http://indeechannel.com/watch/the-immortalists-2/ LIKE OUR CHANNEL: https://www.facebook.com/indeechannel David and Jason #39;s first featu...

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The Immortalists - IndeeChannel.Com - Video

[Science Solitaire] We want to tame our own bodies because we want to outlive our own ailments

When doctors need to see you intimately without having to cut through you, they subject you to magnetic fields 30,000 stronger than what the Earths magnetic field generates. They put you through a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine. The stupendous strength of those magnets cause your bodys atoms to align and send radio frequency signals that the machine translates into a digital image of the nooks and crannies in your body where no eye has ever gone before.

Those magnets are so strong that every precaution is taken so that any metal in your body is taken out (if they could be taken out; otherwise you do not get into the machine) before you get into the machine lest they come flying off in speeds that could hit you or anyone in the MRI room which defeats the purpose of the entire medical exercise.

What could motivate humans to create such machines that magnify powers of an entire planet and concentrate it on a singular photo exploration of a human body? And that is only the MRI machine. Think of the other powerful medical tools that we have come up with.

Yes, we want to tame our own bodies because we want to outlive our own ailments. And underneath that wellness mantra, we all know that we do this based on a deeper drive. The thing is, we have tasted what its like to be alive and we want more so we take it on our own hands and stretch our lives, like pulling gum we have been chewing for a while. You dont need to tell your doctor this when you go to her for a treatment. She shares this sentiment with you.

And it has worked! But it has not yet stretched the gum of our lives to infinity and beyond. Humans are living longer than ever before in their entire history but everyone we knew or knew of has conked out at some point doing that stretch. Living up to a 100 is still the exception that we celebrate centenarians and hold them up simply by having lived that long regardless of how that life has been lived. We usually give in to the probability that length must equal quality of living. We give them bonus points for stamina because we also know the load that the years throw, regardless of who you are.

If you want to have a closer look at what humans have been trying to stretch their own lifespans and healthspans, including the incredible successes and failures, you may want to read Bill Giffords Spring Chicken (Stay Young Forever or Die Trying).

I was listening to NPRs interview of him about his book and it was insightful and hilarious. He talked about someone named Seguard who in 1889 declared that he has found the elixir of youth, which he concocted by using, among other strange parts, crushed dog testicles and semen which he injected into himself. It was said that he lived 4 or 5 years more since he inflicted himself with the concoction and one of his claims was he regained distance urination which is something very few of us may have in mind as one of the highlights of living forever more.

Gifford explored what I want to characterize as longevity start-ups, like those who use growth hormones, those who starve themselves consistently by lessening their intake or by fasting. He even looked into scientists who have studied fascinating creatures who can live up to the equivalent of a 600-year old woman without ever reaching menopause!

But amid these incredible quests, this is what we know and have proven so far to be true. Our bodies are wired to start giving up once we are past the reproductive stage. This is because that is the only plan they have: to keep the genes moving along. Our cells, once raging to renew and divide when we are young, get tired through the years. Some of them get to be cantankerous and drag their cell mates along with them. How long or quickly this happens seems to depend on a lot on what you inherited from your parents: genes. Other than that, eating just right and consistent and consistent exercise seem to be the only boring, yet proven effective, ingredients of the elixir that we yearn for.

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Longevity 'start-ups'