Amazing tech breakthroughs

Scientists may finally have cracked the secret to eternal youth – and all it would require from you is the commitment to pop a pill each morning.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School’s Paul F Glenn Centre for the Biology of Ageing recently announced they’d succeeded in reversing ageing in mice. Now they’re hoping to do the same for humans.

Every cell of your body requires the coenzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) for the basic functions that keep you alive. The problem is, as you age your levels of NAD drop, resulting in DNA damage that leads to diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

But after finding a way to boost NAD levels in the blood vessels of old mice, Dr David Sinclair, who led the team, is convinced they’re onto something big. “We’re absolutely talking about increasing the quality of life – preventing cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s,” he says. Human trials are under way.