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34
longer – a painstaking process that will be measured in weeks or months, not years.
The real challenge now facing biologists is to learn how to delay the ageing process.
So immortality is a realistic prospect not for the foreseeable future. The
gerontologist, Professor Tom Kirkwood firmly quashed the notion that genetic
engineering might result in some kind of “fountain of youth”. Considering how
frustratingly slow the battles against cancer, heart disease and strokes have been, he
said it is fanciful to imagine that we could conquer death. On the other hand,
scientists do now understand more about why we age, and what can be done to slow
the process. “Our ancestral genes placed limited priority on long-term maintenance
and repair ,” sais Kirkwood. “Ageing comes about through the gradual build-up of
unprepared faults in the cells and tissues of our bodies, not as the result of some
active mechanism for death and destruction.” The trick, then, is to help the body
repair the damage done by wear and tear.
That can be done in many different ways, some of which are already pretty
commonplace. Organ transplants from pigs and monkeys are now old news – the
American politician Jess Helms has just had a ten-year-old pig valve in his heart
replaced. Laser eye surgery has become so commonplace that Americans can now get
it in shopping malls. Doctors have succeeded in wiring computerized implants
directly to nerve fibres, allowing the deaf to hear, and there is hope that electrodes
planted in the brain may soon offer hope for the blind to see. But the real potential at
the moment lies in the field of stem cells – special cells that allow lizards to grow
new tails and humans to grow new skin over minor cuts. If scientists can learn how to
control these cells, they could be used to regenerate parts of the body that are failing.
Notes:
breakthrough крупное достижение, открытие
lifespan продолжительность жизни
(pre/post)natal относящийся к рождению
longevity долголетие, долгожительство
painstaking (process) кропотливый, тщательный процесс
ageing (=aging) старение
foreseeable (future) поддающийся предвидению
gerontology геронтология,
учение о старости
quash подавлять, сокрушать
stroke решающий довод, удар, приём, ход
to age стареть
ancestral (genes) наследственный, родовой
wear and tear (of life) жизненные передряги
valve клапан (сердца)
stem cells стволовые клетки
Task 1. Read the text again to decide which of the statements below a) possibly
true, b) definitely true or c) unlikely:
1). People in the UK are living much longer than they used to.
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