Indole, an organic chemical compound that’s found in our gut and contributes to the smell of poop, increases the healthy lifespan of worms, flies, and mice, according to new research. Scientists say this likely applies to humans as well, and that this stinky substance could eventually be used to delay age-related…
Humans are the only animals known to develop Alzheimer’s disease, an age-related brain disorder that causes impaired cognitive functioning and other behavioral problems. Or at least, that’s what we thought. For the first time ever, researchers are claiming to have found signs of the disease in the brains of elderly…
Humans don’t like dying, they don’t like the idea of dying, and most have made not dying an important part of their life. Lots of folks are interested in making us not die for longer, so it was a real bummer last year when a team of researchers said that the maximum human lifespan has plateaued at around 115 years of…
For just about his entire life, Ron Smith has been a subject of a scientific inquiry. At birth, in 1972, he was studied by scientists, and then assessed again at age three to document his physical fitness, mental health and intelligence. Every few years after that, he has returned to be poked, prodded and tested in…
Humans start getting ready to die as soon as they are born. But for some, that process takes a whole lot longer than it does for everyone else.
Over the course of seven years, Sezenia Tzeni endured seven rounds of in vitro fertilization. Typically, women undergo only three or four IVF treatments before either getting pregnant or giving up. But for Tzeni and her husband, conceiving a child was more important than almost anything else.
Depriving ourselves of food to the point of near-starvation doesn’t sound very appealing, but it could prolong our lives and prevent the onset of age-related diseases. A combined analysis of two long-running studies shows that caloric restriction does indeed work in monkeys, hinting at its potential to work in humans.…
Speculation has emerged in recent years that young blood can reverse the aging process, raising the prospect of an exciting new rejuvenation technique. A new study contradicts this claim, pointing to other factors that may be responsible for the perceived anti-aging effects of youthful blood.
The oldest human to have ever lived died at the age of 122—and that was nearly 20 years ago. A recent analysis of global demographic data suggests this may very well be the maximum age attainable by humans, and that it’s extremely unlikely anyone will ever live much beyond this advanced age. That is, unless we science…
If you’re counting on technology to radically extend your lifespan, you’ll want to pay close attention to what’s happening with the Greenland shark. According to a new scientific paper, this mysterious deep-sea dweller can live up to 400 years, making it the longest-lived vertebrate on Earth.
A compound found within pomegranates, when transformed by bacteria in the gut, has been shown to rejuvenate cellular function and reverse the effects of aging on muscles, at least in worms and rodents. On their own, pomegranates may not confer these life-extending qualities—but the discovery could lead to powerful…
Hard to believe, but these two birds pictured above are the same age. The only difference is that the one on the right grew up in an urban environment. It’s an observation that’s raising questions about the health of birds and other urban animals—including humans.
By flushing out cells worn with age, researchers from the Mayo Clinic have extended the lifespans of mice by as much as 35 percent. It’s an encouraging finding that could eventually lead to similar therapies in humans.
Women know that menopause can put a “sell by” date on getting pregnant, but common wisdom says that men retain much of their fertility well into old age. That common wisdom is wrong.
A number of studies have suggested that physically active men have lower rates of erectile dysfunction than couch potatoes, but all of them relied on people being honest about the amount they exercised. A new study published by the Journal of Sexual Medicine checked those results by measuring how much their subjects…
“I’m old” is the common refrain for why we get worse at athletics as we age. But here’s what’s really happening in the body through the years to make world-class performance less possible.
Human vaginas don’t have the fantastical loops and blind alleys of a duck vagina, but they still have some pretty amazing shape-changing powers. Here’s how they’re put together, and how that anatomy lets them grow when they need to.
Since the time of Darwin, evolutionary biologists have wondered why the lifespans of different species vary so significantly. A new model now suggests that the life expectancy of any given species is a function of evolutionary pressures — a conclusion that hints at the potential for powerful anti-aging interventions…
Another day, another mention of how staring at your smartphone is slowly withering you into an unrecognizable pile of sallow, sagging flesh. But I can assure you that "tech neck" is not the only smartphone-induced culprit of rapid aging. It's not just the phone that's going to send you to an early grave, but what's in…
Congrats to San Diego tortoiseshell Tiffany Two, who will turn 27 on March 13 ... making her the world's oldest living cat, according to Guinness World Records. That's 125 in human years.
