How To Be Immortal
All the science, technology and therapies explored in this documentary are being used NOW. Their applications have REAL, solid consequences for the healthy extension of lifespan, including the potential side effect of delaying or postponing death. Everyone knows that death is inevitable, but what if death was not quite so certain? What if death was not the end of life? What if the ultimate illness could be ‘cured’, or at the very least, postponed?
In this 1x59 minute documentary, we investigate the ‘wet science’ of gene therapy and stem cell research-turned-surgery; and the ‘dry science’ of nanotechnology and advancements with bionic limbs.
(Via The Chirurgeon’s Apprentice)
Millions of people fervently believe in an afterlife. John Martin Fischer, a philosopher at the University of California at Riverside, is not one of them.
But Mr. Fischer does see the subject as ripe for academic research, and on Tuesday the John Templeton Foundation awarded him a windfall to make that happen—$5-million for a multidisciplinary investigation of human immortality.
The three-year effort may look at questions like how belief in an afterlife influences human behavior and how near-death experiences vary across cultures. In America, for example, many who survive such events report seeing a tunnel with a light at the end. For Japanese people, the experiences often involve visions of tending a garden.
The Immortality Project will invite research proposals from philosophers, theologians, and scientists. Stressing interdisciplinary projects, it will award grants ranging from $100,000 to $250,000. There will also be two conferences and a Web site.
Click through for the rest of the article.
