Scientists are often accused of having a God complex - and small wonder, given their apparent determination to find new twists on everything from human reproduction to weapons of mass destruction. Now they seem to be closing in on one of the defining characteristics of gods: immortality.
A team of researchers in the US has just published a long-term study of an anti-ageing technique said to cut dramatically the risk of age-related diseases such as cancer and slow the ageing process. Better still, the technique is cheap and simple to use, and could be taken up right now by pretty much anyone in good health.
The bad news is that it means eating less - much less.
Reporting their results in the current issue of the journal Science, the team claims that rhesus monkeys whose calorie intake was cut by 30 per cent did far better in later life than those allowed to eat whatever they liked.
Study leader Professor Richard Weindruch of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reported that the incidence of cancerous tumours and cardiovascular disease in monkeys on calorie-restricted diets was cut by over 50 per cent, while diabetes - common in monkeys that can eat all they want - had yet to be seen in any of those on the calorie-controlled diet.
Intriguingly, the age-related conditions did not merely emerge at a slower rate with these monkeys. By the time they reached the equivalent of "retirement age", the risk of such conditions stopped increasing, staying fixed at a much lower level than that faced by their free-eating counterparts.
Nor were the benefits purely physical: the low-cal monkeys also had brains in better condition, with the regions responsible for motor control, short-term memory and problem-solving all better preserved.
To cap it all, the monkeys also lived longer. Since the beginning of the study in 1989, just 13 per cent of the monkeys on the restricted diet have succumbed to age-related diseases, compared to 37 per cent of those allowed to eat what they liked.
All very exciting, but what the scientists omit to mention is what percentage of the long-living monkeys were happy with their lot. They certainly looked a lot healthier, with brighter eyes and bushier tails, but so do many otherwise miserable former Hollywood stars.
For those of us who don't fancy spending the rest of our lives picking at salads, another discovery announced last week seems more enticing: a compound that seems to slow ageing.
The idea of popping a pill to buy more years sounds like science fiction, but that is the aim of a programme set up by the US National Institute of Ageing. Now it has made its first breakthrough, having identified a molecule which appears to boost the lifespan of mice.
Known as rapamycin, the compound is secreted by bacteria discovered over 30 years ago in soil samples from Easter Island. Since then it has been used with patients receiving transplanted organs, damping down their immune system to combat the risk of rejection. But it has also attracted the interest of anti-ageing researchers, because of its effect on an enzyme codenamed mTOR, which seems to play a role in the ageing process.
Now rapamycin has been put through the NIA's screening process, with dramatic results. According to the current issue of the journal Nature, when the compound was given to 600-day old mice -equivalent in human terms to around 60 years - their life expectancy was boosted by 28 per cent for males, and 38 per cent for females. That's roughly equivalent to adding an extra 6 years to the lives of elderly humans.
Anyone thinking of dashing off to Easter Island armed with a spade should think again, however. The results have some odd features - not least the fact that the mice given rapamycin seemed to be doing better than average even before they were fed the compound. That suggests that at least part of the improvement could be down to something else, such as better nutrition.
Even if the results are replicated, rapamycin's powerful effect on the immune system rule it out as a practical anti-ageing compound. In any case, the results are based on experiments with mice - and all too many "breakthroughs" in animal experiments fail to work in humans.
The real significance of the study is that, despite appearances, it ties neatly with the findings from the experiment involving monkeys. Biochemists have found that the enzyme targeted by rapamycin, mTOR, is also affected by calorie intake - precisely the factor controlled in the monkey study. They have also discovered that mTOR affects processes inside living cells which leads to their steady deterioration over time ? in other words, ageing.
This suggests that by giving the mice rapamycin, the researchers were mimicking the effect of what a low-cal diet does far more simply: restricting the effect of mTOR. That, in turn, points to a strategy for developing a genuine anti-ageing pill: find a compound which targets mTOR without producing a host of unwanted side-effects. Given the complexity of the ageing process on mind and body, finding such a compound is likely to prove a huge challenge. Yet success is also likely to prove extremely lucrative, given international concern about coping with an growing population of people who are not just old but also infirm.
In the race to discover the elixir of middle age if not youth, let us hope that researchers don't forget the need to preserve spirit as well as mind and body. For as the late author Kingsley Amis pointed out, there are no pleasures in life worth giving up in exchange for a few more years in a nursing home.
Robert Matthews is a Visiting Reader in Science at Aston University, Birmingham, England
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
RESULT
Arsenal 0 Chelsea 3
Chelsea: Willian (40'), Batshuayi (42', 49')
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Monster Hunter: World
Capcom
PlayStation 4, Xbox One
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So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
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Specs%3A%202024%20McLaren%20Artura%20Spider
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Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
MATCH INFO
UAE Division 1
Abu Dhabi Harlequins 12-24 Abu Dhabi Saracens
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Race card
5pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,600m; 5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m
6pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m; 6.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 2,200m
7.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 (PA) 1,400m
How the bonus system works
The two riders are among several riders in the UAE to receive the top payment of £10,000 under the Thank You Fund of £16 million (Dh80m), which was announced in conjunction with Deliveroo's £8 billion (Dh40bn) stock market listing earlier this year.
The £10,000 (Dh50,000) payment is made to those riders who have completed the highest number of orders in each market.
There are also riders who will receive payments of £1,000 (Dh5,000) and £500 (Dh2,500).
All riders who have worked with Deliveroo for at least one year and completed 2,000 orders will receive £200 (Dh1,000), the company said when it announced the scheme.
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
