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must therefore be understood as representing technologically In June 1995 it was announced that scientists had found a advanced, flesh-and-blood people who created us "in their own longevity gene that could prolong the life of microscopic earth- image" and thus physically resemble us. If they passed among us worms by up to 65 per cent. A team led by Tom Johnson of the today, we would not know it. Institute for Behavioral Genetics at the University of Colorado An even greater conceptual problem arises from consideration discovered a gene, which they named "Age-1", that regulated the of the alleged immortality of the Anunnaki gods, and this is the | worms' ability to repair their cells. By experimenting with muta- area I concentrate upon in this article. tions of this gene, they found that one mutation caused a remark- According to an ancient text known as the Atra-Hasis, the same able improvement in the worms' resistance to toxins, temperature god who created man also saved Noah from the Flood and was fluctuations and ultraviolet radiation. The team believes that this later worshipped by the Sumerian people in the period 3800-2000 — major breakthrough represents the first step towards understand- BC. If this god, known as Ea or Enki, was truly the creator of ing how cells that degenerate in later life can be repaired. They Homo sapiens as claimed, then he must have been at least hope that within the next decade the human equivalent of Age-1 180,000 years old in Sumerian times. It will be understood, enabling human life is not surprising that scholars have to be prolonged by more than 40 years. therefore rejected these claims as The idea of a genetic In December 1995 it was reported romanticised mythology. . that Dr Barbara Bregman and teams The example just cited is typical of enhancement by the Anunnaki from the University of Ziirich and ancient texts which consistently attest to gods (I have termed this Georgetown University in Washington, the immortality of the gods. But what if cr . . " . DC, had also made another major these gods only appeared to be immor- interventionism ) provides an breakthrough, hailed as "the holy grail tal? What if their apparent immortality alternative to the conventional of neurobiology". It had been thought was actually an extended longevity? that it was biologically impossible to With the benefit of hindsight, we do debate between regenerate the nerve cells in the brain indeed find textual clues to suggest that i and spinal cord (unlike other body tis- the Anunnaki did suffer the effects of Church and Science. sues) once they were damaged. ageing over the very long term. However, Bregman discovered that by Ninharsag, for instance, a goddess who using antibodies she could block the assisted in the creation of man, was later known in Egypt as "the action of inhibitor chemicals which prevented the nerve cells of Cow"—an unflattering reference with definite ageing connota- rats from growing. In this way, she successfully managed to tions. The Canaanite god El, meanwhile, was described in one restore the growth potential which the rats' cells had when they ancient text as having a grey beard. were young. This discovery has enormous significance for human longevity since the human brain is one of our most critical sys- LONGEVITY: THE NEW GENETIC SCIENCE tems. Curiously, cell divisions within our brains cease at a very What does modern science have to say on the question of early stage, followed by a long process of gradual cell deaths. extended longevity? Is it physi ally possible for a humanlike This affects critical faculties such as hearing, sense of smell and had ~ : 2 Tat ne tha LONGEVITY: THE NEW GENETIC SCIENCE What does modern science have to say on the question of extended longevity? Is it physically possible for a humanlike body to survive for thousands of years? Let us now review the latest findings from genetic science. In the past we might have been forgiven for thinking that our bodies simply wore out through the stresses of everyday life. However, we now understand that ageing is genetically pre-pro- grammed into the cells of the human body. When our cells divide, the splitting of one cell into two involves a duplicating of the genetic message (the uman genome) which is carried on the 46 chro- mosomes in every human cell. But instead of an exact duplication, our genetic program is being gradually eroded by an imperfect copying rocess. When enough of these genetic errors (or mutations) have accumulated in our cells, the * effects of ageing become visible. a Geneticist Steve Jones describes ageing as a L"] "biological identity crisis" and explains that our odies are working from "an imperfect instruction manual, full of printing errors".* Professor Rajinder Sohal of the Southern Methodist 4 University in Dallas, Texas, states that "after the age of 55 human beings go to hell very fast ecause the rate of deterioration doubles every six years".” So serious is this escalation in the rate of genetic degradation that, by the time we reach 80, a critical one-third of our protein has been dam- aged. memory. NEXUS - 61 debate between Church and Science. Figure 2: The gods Enki and Enlil (seated) AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 1997