From the rodent models that have been looked at, the increase in lifespan is usually in the range of 15-30% maximum. |
If you look at what a 70-year-old person is doing now versus what a 70-year-old person was doing 50 years ago, it's totally different. All you've got to look at is [the astronaut] John Glenn, who went [into space] when he was 77. Three out of four of my grandparents died before they were 75 years of age, let alone going [into space]. |
Until the past five years, there was not a lot of interest in putting money into ageing research - one reason was the belief that you couldn't do anything about it. The other thing is if you do slow down the ageing process, maybe that'll be bad because we'll just have more people in nursing homes. |