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Any boardwalk palm reader will try and convince you that there's a lifeline on your hand, a marking that can show just how long you're destined to remain on this world. While your palm creases may not actually hold that information, it appears that it may be hiding in your telomeres — the protective DNA caps on the end of chromosomes. More »
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If you thought the Mommy Tummy pregnancy simulator was hilarious, try this exoskeleton on for size. This is AGNES (Age Gain Now Empathy System), a suit by MIT's AgeLab that simulates what it's like to be in your mid-seventies. It's not recommended for fisticuffs with xenomorphs. More »
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Being the U.S. President is a stressful job — just look at how quickly our last few leaders have gone grey while in office. But is that stress enough to shorten their lifespans? A piece of research in this month's Journal of the American Medical Association answers that question definitively. More »
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There seems to be one surefire way to increase longevity in animals. It's caloric restriction, which means placing them on a near-starvation diet. We don't know if that could work on humans... but fruit flies might be able to give us the answer. More »
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At first glance, the fact that we grow old and die seems like one massive evolutionary mistake. After all, if evolution is all about survival of the fittest, wouldn't the fittest individuals be those that can stay healthy and keep reproducing forever? More »
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Remember the last time you were at a noisy party — the kind of party where you have trouble understanding what the person next to you is saying? Scientists call this the "cocktail party problem," and use it to describe the difficulty that humans have understanding speech in the presence of background noise. More »
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The male Houbara bustard of North Africa is one of the animal kingdom's most extravagant creatures, with huge ornamental feathers and complex, energetic mating practices known as "booming." But all that booming has dire consequences for their actual reproductive chances. More »
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It's easy to think of old age as a uniquely human phenomenon, and there's a certain amount of truth to that - most species die before they can experience the physical or mental deterioration often associated with growing older. More »
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Bees can become mentally young again with just a few simple alterations to their otherwise fixed routines. Because the brains of bees are surprisingly like our own, this trick could help fight dementia and keep human minds young and flexible. More »
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Humans age very slowly, but the older we get, the more likely death gets. Not every animal follows that pattern though - some species live for only very short periods, but their age doesn't actually seem to affect when they die. Figuring out why these animals age the way they do could help us understand why humans age...maybe even how to stop it. More »
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On New Year's Day, the giant population bump known as the baby boom started turning 65. By the decade's end, more humans will be over 65 than under 5. Homo sapiens is entering uncharted territory. What will happen? More »
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Hint: If you're watching a science fiction/fantasy TV show and someone shows up, apparently dead of old age... it's always something else. Prematurely aged stiffs showed up on two different Syfy shows recently, but aging-to-death has been a time-honored trope. More »
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All animals eventually grow old and die. It's an inevitable fact of life - except when it isn't. Some animals, like tortoises and lobsters, never grow old, and learning their secrets could let humans live as long as they want. More »
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There's no simple trick to reaching 100 years old, although most experts say it's a mix of luck and taking good care of yourself. Plus, it really helps to have one of the nineteen "longevity" gene groups scientists just discovered. More »
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Andrew Niccol — the writer behind Gattaca and The Truman Show — will journey into tomorrow with I'm.mortal, a Logan's Run-esque "social sci-fi" adventure. More »
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Brooke Greenberg looks like a toddler, but she is actually sixteen years old. She is only 30 inches high. Now scientists are studying her genome to figure out whether she possesses a mutation that prevents her body from aging. More »
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You might know your chronological age, but do you know your "molecular age"? A newly found chemical in the human body could indicate how old your body actually feels, acting as a marker for aging in the body. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5292958&view=rss&microfeed=true A depressing new study from a group of neuroscientists at University of Virgina suggests that people begin experiencing age-related cognitive deterioration in their late 20s. Published today, a summary of the study explains: More »
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Massive quantities of helium were discovered leaking out of the ground in Nevada. This mysterious gas emission is even stranger because usually geologists only see this kind of thing near volcanoes. Is Nevada about to become a volcanic hellhole? [Discovery News]

10,000-year-old trees were discovered during a construction project on a farm in Michigan. They are among the best-preserved fossilized trees ever found, and scientsts speculate that they were crushed under the last glacier to stretch across North America. [Science Daily] More »
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