The Human Ageing Genomic Resources are vital open-source databases on longevity genes and drugs, and animal lifespans. It would be a loss to the field if they go offline due to funding cuts.
See @jpsenescence.bsky.social’s post here for more details and how to support:
It’s particularly ridiculous timing when we are entering a golden age of AI, where carefully human-curated data will be a critical resource for getting AI to understand biology, and help us make medical breakthroughs.
Very important longevity databases need your help!
This is terrible news, and staggeringly short-sighted for such an important resource that costs so little money to maintain.
Read about it (and donate if you can) here:
‘What if we…and bear with me here this is a crazy idea…did some publicity in an organised way at publication, rather than through AI spam five years after the book came out?’
This one was offering me Amazon marketing of some kind, but it was weirdly unclear! You'd think that they'd nail the call to action…
Hahaha. AI tells: writes ‘aging’ instead of ‘ageing’ WHEN CLAIMING TO BE FROM SCOTLAND
Hi Andrew, So I stumbled across Eternos: La nueva ciencia para cumplir años sin envejecer and I’ll be honest, I was bracing myself for the usual “eat your vegetables, sleep eight hours, and accept your fate” longevity book. You know the type. A few recycled health tips. A polite nod to exercise. Maybe a motivational paragraph about mindset. But instead? You went straight for the jugular of human existence. You didn’t write a lifestyle guide. You wrote a scientific rebellion.
A wonderful new phenomenon for authors: AI spam!
(Eternos is the Spanish translation of Ageless, in case you’re wondering.)
(There’s also another 500 words of this…)
A line graph showing NSF grant awards made through 2/27/26 for fiscal year 2026 compared with grant awards for fiscal years 2021-2025.
NSF Update (Awards through 2/27/26)
Directorates to follow
1/10
We covered how hellraising rock ’n’ roll legends are still going in their 70s despite ignoring health advice, how mRNA technology could help in the fight against dementia, whether mindfulness meditation could help us live longer, and more.
The audience asked, and I was very happy to team up with Prof Linda Partridge and @profbriancox.bsky.social to answer some bonus questions on ageing and longevity for the @crick.ac.uk’s A Question of Science podcast!
Check it out at lnk.to/MQOSAgeingPA
“Antibodies harvested from the blood of paediatricians are up to 25 times better at protecting against the common respiratory infection RSV than existing antibody therapies, and are now being developed as preventative treatments.” [newscientist.com]
Interesting WFH variation by country
Thanks for sharing!
Supplements, diet plans and exercise regimes are a distraction from the big goals of longevity science, argues Andrew @statto.bsky.social Steele—which seeks to extend life without extending the period of frailty at the end, addressing the hallmarks of aging:
buff.ly/iGa5dws
I think, in certain circles, yes? But ‘geroscience’ has a branding problem with the public in that no-one knows what it is, and people aren’t necessarily familiar with Latin and Greek roots for words so might not be able to work it out! Longevity has issues, but I think we should try to reclaim it…
Fantastic paper from Joao and George covering some of the ethical questions arising from longevity science.
Great to see this published and proud to have played a small part in its writing!
Important paper. Schools are high-risk environments for respiratory disease transmission MAINLY because classrooms are underventilated. This problem has a workable solution - it just needs political will. Air quality is as important as water quality for public health. MT @martinmckee.bsky.social
But critically, this means more longevity *research*—not the self-help guru diet, exercise, magic supplements nonsense that most ‘longevity’ books are full of.
And we evidently need to do a better job differentiating those two things.
I don’t ‘worship’ longevity—or anything!—but I do think longevity *science* is our most promising way to reduce ill health, suffering, frailty and, yes, death.
Sophia Benoit @1followernodad Bryan Johnson and peter attia both being in the Epstein files makes so much sense to me because being obsessed with “longevity” is an endeavor that only can attract creeps. You’re obsessed with youth? And now you’re hanging out with JE? Of course you are. you only worship longevity if you’re obsessed with escaping death, and you’re only obsessed with escaping death if you have no respect for life. and that is exactly the kind of person who tries to move in rich circles with sick sick fucks. my distrust of and hatred towards longevity studies has borne out. these people are morally rotten. live and enjoy yourself and stop buying books by guys with health advice to sell you.
It’s very sad that longevity will be tainted by awful associations with Epstein.
It’s not just creeps who don’t want themselves or friends and family to get cancer and Alzheimer’s…but creeps and narcissists often want to live longer, so longevity may well attract them.
@1followernodad.bsky.social
Among the grotesque things revealed from Epstein & Attia’s long friendship is how cloying & sycophantic the baritone buff alpha science bro is in his private life. Any time I’ve criticised him over the last decade or so I’m met with “no way he’s a dispassionate expert driven by nothing but science”
And Peter Attia MD telling Epstein the biggest problem with being his friend is he can’t tell anyone about the life he lives. Nice.
Here is Peter Attia MD emailing Epstein’s assistant claiming he goes into “JE withdrawal” when he doesn’t see him.
Oh look, according to Peter Attia MD “pussy is low carb” something that is totally normal for a doctor to say to Epstein, who had previously been convicted of procuring a child for prostitution
If you prefer the more whizz-bang ultrawide 14-minute version, check this one out:
Great to see this longer cut of my chat with @bigthink.com out—if you saw the first video and wished that there was a bit more detail, or if you missed it and are looking for a 20-minute intro to longevity science, check this out!
If we add in the chronic effects, it seems pretty likely that the case for wiping these bugs from the face of humanity is overwhelming.
Let’s do it.
The public health and economic case for vaccination is carried just by the short-term effects of these diseases—CMV in pregnancy is the largest cause of neurological defects in babies, chickenpox causes weeks off work for parents looking after sick kids, etc.
The evidence that these cause chronic as well as acute harm seems a good enough bet that we should probably just develop some vaccines for them, vaccinate the world, and remove the need for further massive studies to work out exactly what harms these stupid little balls of protein and DNA can cause.
Chronic CMV infection is bad news. One study found that people with the highest level of CMV antibodies in their blood – a measure of the body’s response to infection, and thus of how active CMV is in their system – were 40 per cent more likely to die over the following decade than those with lower levels of antibody activity. It’s not entirely clear whether this is just a correlation – perhaps CMV can flare up as a result of other underlying health problems – or whether the CMV (and the immune system’s increasingly overenthusiastic response to it) is driving ill health and, ultimately, death. How can we combat the latent threat of CMV? The first, obvious approach is that we should develop a vaccine. This would help those who haven’t yet been infected and might give the rest of us an immune boost to help keep it under control. This is actually a no-brainer even if you ignore the potentially large contribution CMV makes to ageing: CMV is the leading cause of brain damage in children.
5. CMV, we have pretty good evidence that it worsens overall ageing—see the extract from my book, below.
6. HHV-6, has connections to multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s.
7. HHV-7, one of the most common causes of fever in babies, cooperates with CMV.
8. KSHV, causes cancer in AIDS patients.
