Blue death: The frontiers of ageing research | A film by the Wellcome Trust

What exactly is ageing? More and more, ageing is being studied just like any other genetic trait, yielding to an armoury of modern scientific tools. David Gems, at UCL's Institute of Healthy Ageing, leads one of the labs teasing apart the genetic nature of ageing using one of nature's simplest animals, the nematode worm.

In this short film, David and his student, Cassandra, take us on a journey exploring the nature of ageing and how scientists are unravelling its mysteries.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• ageing
• longevity
• death
• lifespan
• enhancement
• nematode
• worms
• genetics
• David Gems
• documentary
• scientific research
• science
• ultra violet
• microscopy
• biomarkers
• markers for ageing
• fluorescence
• nutrition
• food intake
• caloric restriction
• Wellcome Trust
• Institute of Healthy Ageing
• UCL

[wisdom234]

@ChineseMandarinTutor, The illnesses mentioned in the video are usually age-related, therefore, by slowing down ageing, the onset of such diseases will too be slowed down, this is why cancer and cardiovascular disease are more common in elderly people. This is not to say that such diseases will deplete all-together, random mutations of course will still cause such diseases to penetrate but as Gems has suggested, the chances of getting these diseases as a cause of ageing will hence decrease.

[happinesson]

be healthy, be happy..this will increases our life span..

[ChineseMandarinTutor]

Hey Dr Gems, I don't think that by reducing aging ALL the illnesses mentions will be reduced... as time progresses, even though we may be able to age slower, other genes that are responsible for illnesses will still change over time? JZ

[iCharmaineG]

How strangely captivating that the worms emit blue light near death - great film