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Living forever may never be possible, says scientific study

But we have so many things we were planning to do with our immortality.

IS THERE A limit to how old humans could one day become?

French researchers trying to answer the age-old question said they found evidence in two categories of people who lived long lives of a “biological barrier” to living forever.

The team used the recorded deaths of 1,205 “supercentenarians” who died between 1899 and 2013 aged 110 or older, and of 19,012 athletes who had competed in the Olympics from 1896 to 2012.

The athletes are considered among the longest-living people.

For the supercentenarians, the researchers found longevity had steadily increased until 1997, when the rate levelled out. A similar ceiling was observed among the athlete group.

These trends “provide no signs of a recent increased longevity pattern among the longest-lived,” which is not good news for people with average life expectancies, the authors wrote in the Journal of Gerontology.

Had there been a non-stop upward trend, they would have expected to find evidence of more people living ever longer, the team said.

Instead, their results support theories of an “invisible barrier” to a non-stop increase in longevity.

The team conceded the number of people they studied was “relatively small” and the observation period restricted, meaning the trend they observed could be merely a temporary anomaly.

In other words: now is not the time to cry – now’s the time to find out why*.

Oasis / YouTube

*sorry 

- © AFP, 2014

Read: Are you a workaholic? Norwegian researchers have developed this way to check > 

Read: Humans and Neanderthals lived side-by-side for 5,000 years. We share DNA. Do the maths > 

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    Mute Conor Egan
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    Dec 13th 2020, 9:42 AM

    Reminds me of the Simpson episode when they used an angel skeleton to advertise a new shopping centre.

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    Mute Lad
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    Dec 13th 2020, 5:33 PM

    @Conor Egan: what started as art is probably now a subreddit waiting for a business to take advantage of it.

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    Mute Greg Ward
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    Dec 13th 2020, 9:34 AM

    If it turn out to be advertising for some streaming service, I’m going to be very disappointed.

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    Mute Kate Colbert
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    Dec 13th 2020, 9:55 AM

    You should’ve added the photo of the lads caught pulling the ‘monolith’ from their truck to put it up last week.

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    Mute BenG
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    Dec 13th 2020, 9:50 AM

    Banksy bored with stencils.

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    Mute Robbie Scott
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    Dec 13th 2020, 10:37 AM

    Wrong name, monoliths are stone /rock.

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    Mute Rúraíocht
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    Dec 13th 2020, 10:28 AM

    For god sake people, it’s obvious. Aliens installed them.

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    Mute Stephen Deegan
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    Dec 13th 2020, 2:55 PM

    They’re 5G masts. Bill Gates told me this in a dream after I got the vaccine.

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Dec 13th 2020, 10:31 AM

    Are we receiving cryptic messages from on high?

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    Mute D'oh
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    Dec 13th 2020, 10:32 AM

    Crappy diversion story or crappy marketing ploy, either way crappy.

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    Mute David cotter
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    Dec 13th 2020, 10:23 AM

    Where do people find the time…..

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    Mute Optimus Prime
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    Dec 13th 2020, 10:57 AM

    @David cotter: they just use up the 24hrs their given. That’s where they find it.

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    Mute ChuckE
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    Dec 13th 2020, 2:30 PM

    Why are you even reporting on this nonsense. A giant marketing scam

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    Mute D'oh
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    Dec 13th 2020, 5:44 PM

    @ChuckE: Yip, tedious now too.

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    Mute Patrick Mangan
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    Dec 13th 2020, 10:10 AM

    @Paul: Banksy has worked with a lot of different media, look up death of the phone box and the Elephant in the room for his exhibition in America

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    Mute Paul
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    Dec 13th 2020, 9:45 AM

    Why?

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    Mute David Dineen
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    Dec 13th 2020, 9:51 AM

    @Paul: why not?

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    Mute Proinsias O Ciosain
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    Dec 13th 2020, 11:53 AM

    aliens

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    Mute Brian Burns
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    Dec 13th 2020, 9:52 AM

    Hello

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