This morning on NPR’s Morning Edition, there was a segment on a test that could predict—with an accuracy rate of 77%—whether or not an individual would live to be a centarian.  The test is based on a comparison of the DNA of those who lived to one hundred, as opposed to those with shorter lives.  The scientists Paolo Sebastiani and Thomas Perls ultimately identified 150 sections of DNA chromosomes which identify those who might live to one hundred.

    Of course, this test has the potential to strongly alter people’s actions—those who learn they will not have the chance to live so long may change their health and behavior accordingly.  But this interest in longevity is by no means a new phenomenon.  In Mortal Coil, David Boyd Haycock tells the history of the attempts to prolong human life.  Figures both famous and unknown sought through medicine, philosophy, and science the possibility of eternal life and endless youth.  The latest news about these genetic studies shows that these interests have not at all abated, though these scientists are careful to discourage its use; they themselves have not taken the test, and say fully understanding the results of the work are far off.