Cynthia Kenyon

Generally, older people in their fifties, sixties, and seventies are running most countries and are CEOs of corporations. Which isn't to say there aren't entrepreneurs, but if the young were better in every respect, there'd be no reason for the old. Our life span reflects our particular life strategy. ”

Just living longer and being sick is the worst. But the idea that you could have fewer diseases, and just have a healthy life and then turn out the lights, that's a good vision to have. And I think what we know about some of these pathways suggests that might be possible. ”

We are trying to find drugs, small molecules, that people could take to make them disease-resistant, more youthful and healthy. Eventually we will find them. ”

Humans live a lot longer than dogs, and we don't suffer any penalty that I can see. We're superior in almost every way - they can smell better. But really, they can't drive cars, they can't do half the things we can. I don't understand why you can't live longer and be really fit. ”

Maybe one day we will be able to take a pill that keeps us young and healthy much longer. I believe in my heart that this will happen. ”

Age is the biggest risk factor for many diseases. You're 100 times more likely to get a tumor at age 65 than age 35. It makes a huge difference. It gives a whole new meaning to preventive medicine. ”

You could have two completely different careers if you could stay healthy to 90. How fascinating that would be. ”

It's possible that we could change a human gene and double our life span. I don't know if that's true, but we can't rule that out. ”

I was a little truth seeker as a child. I wanted more than anything to understand myself and also other people. ”

With worms you can just change genes at random and see if you can find a mutant that does what you want it to do. ”