Gene clue to a long life
Really old people share a gene which appears to prevent cells ageing.
Researchers studied a group of people with an average age of 97 and found 86 of them had higher levels of an enzyme called telomerase which is known to protect the body's DNA from degrading.
The team from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, who studied an American Ashkenazi Jewish community, said the finding could lead to anti-aging drugs.
Telomerase is known to protect telomeres which stop the string of DNA unravelling much like the plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces stop fraying.
Each time a cell divides, its telomeres shortens and the cell becomes more susceptible to dying.
By boosting telomerase, scientists think they could eventually stop the cells dying and so protect against old age.
Weird Science Factoid: Karate originated in India before being developed by the Chinese.
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Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.
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