• Question: How long can the human life span be extended?

    Asked by westmorepenney to Sam, Mario, Ezzy, Clare, Ben on 15 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Sam Vinko

      Sam Vinko answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      Excellent question. I don’t know of any intrinsic reason why we couldn’t live indefinitely some day, but at the moment the reversibility (or lack of) of the ageing process is still something we need to fully understand.

    • Photo: Elizabeth Pearson

      Elizabeth Pearson answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      I think the question is more about keeping us active and mentally able for longer.

    • Photo: Mario Campanelli

      Mario Campanelli answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      When brain cells die they do not get replaced, and this is why old pople have memory and concentration issues. Keep your brain fit and working!

    • Photo: Clare Burrage

      Clare Burrage answered on 18 Mar 2012:

      I don’t know, medicine is getting better and better and we can cure lots of things now that would have killed us decades or centuries ago.
      But I don’t think humans will be able to live for ever, there’s a law in physics that says that eventually everything want to break down and end up in chaos and disorder (this is the second law of thermodynamics). This is what’s happening to our bodies when we die, the finely tuned organs in our body start to break down and stop working.
      I don’t think we’ll ever be able to avoid this physical law and live for ever, but we might be able to live a lot longer than we do at the moment.

Comments