Imagine walking on a treadmill and time is the speed at which the belt moves. As you age, the speed of the belt increases, representing time passing faster and faster as we age. However, what if we could speed up and run faster than the belt? This is widely known as the concept of Longevity Escape Velocity (LEV), which is essentially the idea of outrunning time itself.
Longevity Escape Velocity refers to a future scenario in which medical progress and innovation allows scientists to extend human lifespan at a rate greater than the passage of time. Imagine a world where each passing year not only adds another year to our lives but also enhances our health, vitality, and functional abilities. This concept, popularised by Biomedical gerontologist Dr. Aubrey de Grey, centres around the idea of developing rejuvenation therapies that repair age-related damage at the cellular and molecular levels, with the aim of effectively reversing the aging process.
Organisations such as Dr Aubrey de Grey’s LEV Foundation are playing a huge role in attempting to achieve this extraordinary milestone by striving to speed up the development of life extending therapies and endeavouring to make them accessible to all. It can be argued that they tend to focus on high risk, high reward research that other institutions might overlook due to its experimental nature, however without those that dare to think big, developments in longevity science will not make the strides needed to make a real impact in our future.
