Science develops Fountain of Youth like technology

Researchers at John Hopkins have done what Ponce de Leon never could, they have discovered the closest thing to the fabled ‘Fountain of Youth’ ever found.  These scientists have researched a safe method to transform adult blood cells into identical versions of that subject’s blood cells as a 6-day old embryo.  The potential for this discovery could quite possibly cure that which was previously incurable; ranging from heart attacks to spinal cord cancer – even eternal youth.  This is some Ra's Al Ghul @#$% right here.

Now, let’s throw in the controversy.  I’ll give you one guess where this healing technology comes from?  If you guessed stem cell research you’d be very accurate.  These scientists believe that stem cell research could change medicine forever – since they are so difficult and potentially immoral to acquire, this research hasn’t gone full scale yet.  The other option involves using the stem cells found in umbilical cords to make DNA mutation viruses which sounds a bit too Umbrella for me…

Is this mad science or utopian?  Science is only going to snowball and our potential as humans is practically limitless.  Not enough or too much?  Will this research only be for the extremely wealthy?  There are lots of questions and potential controversy here.  I’m personally quite interested to see where this is headed.      

[Gizmodo via Plosone]

Historian, teacher, writer, gamer, cheat master, and tech guru: follow on Twitter @AndrewC_GZ