BBC Science – Life expectancy is increasing in the developed world. But Cambridge University geneticist Aubrey de Grey believes it will soon extend dramatically to 1,000. Here, he explains why. Ageing is a physical phenomenon happening to our bodies, so at some point in the future, as medicine becomes more and more powerful, we will inevitably be able to address ageing just as effectively as we address many diseases today.I claim that we are close to that point because of the SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) project to prevent and cure ageing. It is not just an idea: it’s a very detailed plan to repair all the types of molecular and cellular damage that happen to us over time. And each method to do this is either already working in a preliminary form (in clinical trials) or is based on technologies that already exist and just need to be combined. This means that all parts of the project should be fully working in mice within just 10 years and we might take only another 10 years to get them all working in humans. When we get these therapies, we will no longer all get frail and decrepit and dependent as we get older, and eventually succumb to the innumerable ghastly progressive diseases of old age. We will still die, of course - from crossing the road carelessly, being bitten by snakes, catching a new flu variant etcetera - but not in the drawn-out way in which most of us die at present. So, will this happen in time for some people alive today? Probably. Since these therapies repair accumulated damage, they are applicable to people in middle age or older who have a fair amount of that damage. I think the first person to live to 1,000 might be 60 already. It is very complicated, because ageing is. There are seven major types of molecular and cellular damage that eventually become bad for us - including cells being lost without replacement and mutations in our chromosomes. Each of these things is potentially fixable by technology that either already exists or is in active development. (12/05/04)
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BBC Agriculture – UK farming must embrace new ideas and scientific developments if it is to survive over the next few decades. That is the claim of the British Crop Production Council (BCPC) which has published a report examining ways of making farming more “eco-efficient”. Agriculture must cut the environmental damage caused by intensive farming and move to sustainable land use, it says. Farmers need a strategy to cope with the end of current Common Agricultural Policy arrangements in 2012, BCPC adds. Farming needs to be sustainable while remaining competitive, the industry and policy group argues. In addition, the government must prioritise its own strategy for farming beyond 2012. The report, Enhancing The Eco-Efficiency Of Agriculture, argues that science needs to play a crucial role in this transition. “What we haven’t got at the moment is a vision which says: ‘this is where we want agriculture to go’,” John Fisher, general secretary of the BCPC, told the BBC News website. “So we thought this would be an ideal opportunity to try to reach a consensus as to what farming should supply in the future. “That could be very novel crops or it could be ecological services, such as planting more trees on floodplains to prevent flooding, or boosting the amount of carbon in the soil to help with the carbon cycle.” The report, published on Thursday, defines eco-efficiency as the efficient and06/04 sustainable use of resources such as plant nutrients, pesticides and energy, in farm production. It favours a shift to more eco-friendly approaches to agriculture such as mixed farming and precision farming. This last approach involves using modern technology to ensure that pesticides and fertilisers are only used when absolutely necessary. (12/05/04)
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