Nanotechnology

Aging is a cellular process, so the only way to stop it (or reverse it) may be on the cellular level. That’s where nanotechnology comes in. The term describes microscopic devices, materials, or even robots, that can revive cells, attack viruses, repair organs, even deliver precision drug or gene therapies. Nanorobots would also destroy cancer cells more effectively than any current treatment.

For example, in 2004, researchers at Rice University sent gold “nanoshells” after tumors in mice. The shells bonded to the cancers and, when heated by a laser, were destroyed — taking the cancer cells with them. If nanomachines can be shrunk to the size of molecules, they could theoretically medicate and repair a body indefinitely, which means immortality. Research into various forms of nanomedicine is taking place all over the world, at a cost of $4 billion a year.