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Ageing into a miserably ill life, supported by crutches, healthcare and families, would be a thing of the past if scientists find the right human application for a “forever young” drug that has emerged in a Harvard University laboratory.

According to the findings of a research carried out by Dr Ronald DePinho, recently carried by well-known journal Nature, the drug that offers eternal youth as read about in folklores and mythology, could be experimented on human beings in the near future.

It would allow longer and healthier lives, free from debilitating illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, heart disease, or cancer. Such a drug would give skin and hair their youthful lustre, reported Daily Mail.

The scenario seem to be straight out of the Brad Pitt-starrer The Curious Case of Bejamin Button, in which he ages in reverse by getting younger by the year until he looks youthful.

The breakthrough centres around structures called telemores that are tiny biological clocks that cap ends of chromosomes, protecting them from damage.

Over time, the telemores get shorter and raise the odds of age-related diseases. At one point, they become so short that the cells die. This enzyme called telomerase is proven to have capacity to rebuild the telomere caps.

According to the report, Dr DePinho succeeded in “shocking” the enzyme back to life.

In the first major experiment with the drug, Dr DePinho reserved ageing on mice. From what looked like brains, skin, guts and other organs that resembled those of a 80-year-old person, the mice got younger after being administered with the experimental drug.

All that needed was just two months of being the enzyme for the mice to grow younger. They had by then re-grown so many degenerated cells.

In what was termed as remarkable, a male mouse transformed from infertility to fathering large litters, the report said.
“By 2025 we are going to have 1.2billion people aged over 60, which is when you start to see cancer, Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease.  We are on a collision course for a significant amount of burden to society. This is the first time that ageing has been reversed,” Dr DePinho was quoted as saying.

Fruit company plays Mozart to bananas

(FILE)

A fruit company in Japan plays Mozart to its ripening bananas in the belief the music produces a sweeter product.

The bananas are delivered to the the Toyoka Chuo Seika firm from the Philippines in the form of ordinary, unripe fruit.

Mozart’s String Quartet 17 and Piano Concerto 5 in D major, as well as other works, are then played continuously for a week over speakers in the fruit's ripening chamber and the magic begins.

The fruit company's Isamu Okuda confirmed that the organisation is convinced the process makes the bananas sweeter - and consumers of the fruit agree, revealed Japan Times.

Sales of the yellow wonders, otherwise known as the 'Mozart bananas', are up over last year's equivalent, non-music-exposed fruit since they were introduced last July.

Dog trained to go shopping for owner

(GETTY/AFP)

What to do when you can't face going to the shops? Send someone else? For a dog owner in China, the solution was to train his pooch to go shopping for him, reports UK-based daily Metro.

Deng Deng is a one-year-old sheepdog who lives with his owner, Zhang Tiegang in Changsha, southern China.

The dog has been trained by his 32-year-old trainer, Tiegang, to go to the shop, pick out his food and carry it all the way home for him.

Deng Deng is kitted out with a specially made harness, which comes equipped with two bags where the pup can carry his owner's shopping, revealed the newspaper.

The owner of the dog did not reveal how his pet communicates with the shopkeppers on what he wants.

Smart thieves steal proof of theft

(FILE)

These robbers are smart. They not only broke into a garment store in Mumbai and whisked away cash amounting almost to a million Indian rupees, but the cameras too to leave behind no trace of their crime.

The shop owner noticed the cash, CCTV cameras and the recording equipment missing when he opened the shop next morning.

"It was shocking to see the money missing, and more so because they took the cameras that could have caught them in the act and helped the police track them down," said the owner.

"It's going to be tough to nab them since they have left no clues behind," the police said.

Meet the world's most travelled man

(AFP/GETTY)

After travelling 15 million miles and taking 718 Concorde flights to 139 countries, a Brit tourist has become the world's most travelled man.

Wealthy Fred Finn holds the official record for the most miles travelled by a passenger after visiting an incredible 70 per cent of the world's 196 nations.

Fred has spent 52 years travelling the globe, during which he has covered 15 million miles ” the equivalent of travelling to the moon and back 31 times.

He has kept a detailed log of every flight and train journey he has taken, which he had counter-signed by each driver and pilot to verify his achievement.

Fred said, "I have no desire to visit any new counties now. I've been to more places than I could ever dream of and don't really want to visit the remaining ones." Fred has estimated he has flown across the Atlantic over 2,000 times.

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