Why are human beings so obsessed with staying young? What does that say about us as a species? Friday night, Matt and I mused for a few minutes about growing up... ageing. I told him that I was apprehensive on turning thirty and he replied that he found becoming twenty-six somewhat bothersome. We are only twenty-five, why are we even worried about these things?

I remember a commercial I saw when I was a little girl. A skin care commercial featuring five or six women professing the number of their years. 29, 30, 30, 31, 28. They were lying about their age of course. In actuality they were more like 31, 36, 39, ect... What was their secret? Oil of Olay, clinically proven to reduce wrinkles and other signs of ageing. None of it made any sense to me at twelve. At that age, twenty-nine seemed like eons away and I was busy counting the days until I turned eighteen. When I turn forty I'll come back to this post and laugh at myself.

Geneticists claim ageing breakthrough

A genetic experiment to unlock the secrets of the ageing process has created organisms that live six times their usual lifespan, raising hopes that it might be possible to slow ageing in humans.

The geneticists behind the study say the increase in lifespan is so striking, they may have tapped into one of the most fundamental mechanisms that controls the rate at which living creatures age.

They say immortality will have to wait. How long I wonder? Science makes such incredible leaps in their research these days. What will come in a year? Two years? Ten? The next headline could be "Geneticists stop the ageing process." How will we number our lives then?

At least when immortality becomes a treatment available for everyone, I'll finally have enough time for all those books I've been meaning to read.