The Fountain of Youth?

Juan Ponce de Leon (1460-1521) spent his life searching for the mythical fountain of youth. Perhaps it is in St. Louis, MO rather than Florida and he was looking in the wrong place... A recent paper in Science (Evason, et al.) found that ethosuximide, trimethadione, and 3,3-diethyl-2-pyrrolidinone (all anti-seizure medications) increased the life-span of the C. elegans worm. See the full abstract below... What about topical versions of these medicines for the skin?

Science. 2005 Jan 14;307(5707):258-62.

Anticonvulsant medications extend worm life-span.

Evason K, Huang C, Yamben I, Covey DF, Kornfeld K.

Genetic studies have elucidated mechanisms that regulate aging, but there has been little progress in identifying drugs that delay aging. Here, we report that ethosuximide, trimethadione, and 3,3-diethyl-2-pyrrolidinone increase mean and maximum life-span of Caenorhabditis elegans and delay age-related declines of physiological processes, indicating that these compounds retard the aging process. These compounds, two of which are approved for human use, are anticonvulsants that modulate neural activity. These compounds also regulated neuromuscular activity in nematodes. These findings suggest that the life-span-extending activity of these compounds is related to the anticonvulsant activity and implicate neural activity in the regulation of aging.

Magic Magnet

Magic Magnet
Originally uploaded by Coria.

If augmentation of our minds and bodies is the goal, then there are many means to this end. Recently, in the spirit of body-piercing, a man has implanted a magnet into the pulp of his finger. He claims that he can feel things he has never felt, such as magnets in motors and electric fields. This is pretty wild stuff. Very simple concept, but also very powerful. Others have suggested "why not just tape a magnet to your finger?" Alas, this might have a similar effect, but is not the same. What about gloves, however, that have integrated sensory-motor systems? The future is very bright, indeed.

Read the full story.

First Cure, Then Augment

Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.

The goal of medicine, in the largest sense, is to ease suffering, treat disease and to make people "better". Thus, it is not such a leap to think in terms of making normal people better still. The idea of augmenting our natural abilities has been one of my driving forces towards science and medicine since I was very young. As our quote from the Six Million Dollar Man above magnificently illustrates, we are not the first to dream this dream.

The awesome part, however, is that we may be the first generation to actually see it happen.

Our friends over at gizmodo alerted us to a press-release about a new artificial retina being developed by Humayun et al., at the University of Southern California and the Doheny Retina Institute along with Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. This device, a 4-by-4 grid of platinum electrodes embedded in silicone rubber with electrodes that are wirelessly stimulated through an external controller hooked up to a head-mounted video camera is just the beginning.

In short, this is right up our alley.

The next step is to think about ways (ideally non-invasive or at lease NPD*) that we can institute such things in folks with 20/20 vision... Clem and I were talking today and he has some ideas... keep an eye on the site!


*NPD = No Permanent Damage