m. c. de marco: To invent new life and new civilizations...

Technovelgy reports on a project that harks back to Heinlein’s Methuselah’s Children:

The National Institute for Aging (NIA) is now recruiting families for its Long Life Family Study. The requirements: you must be a member of a family with at least two living members aged 80 years or older, with living children living nearby.

“Other studies have indicated that longevity tends to run in families,” said NIA director Richard Hodes. “The planned LFFS is designed to determine the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to longevity and the ability to escape diseases normally associated with aging such as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, stroke and heart disease.”

The project is expected to run five years and cost an estimated $18 milion; three recruitment sites will be located in the U.S. (NYC, Pittsburg and Boston) and one in Denmark.