Science can’t stop aging, but it may be able to slow our epigenetic clocks.

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What if we could slow down the hands of our biological clocks? This question underpins much of the research of Morgan Levine, who leads a research team at the life science company Altos Labs. 

Levine investigates the fascinating intricacies of aging, recognizing that it doesn't happen at a uniform pace for everyone. Central to her exploration is the concept of epigenetics — the factors that influence gene activity without changing the DNA sequence. Levine focuses on DNA methylation, a significant epigenetic change that occurs with aging, and the development of models called "epigenetic clocks" that can be used to predict biological age. 

While she acknowledges that it might be possible to reverse aging at a cellular level, Levine clarifies that the ultimate goal is not to "cure" aging or death, but to delay disease onset and improve healthspan.

0:00 Fast agers & slow agers
1:25 The hallmarks of aging
1:59 What is the epigenetic clock?
3:05 Can we ‘Benjamin Button’ aging?
5:22 The holy grail for scientists

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/explain-it-like-im-smart/epigenetics-and-aging/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description

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About Morgan Levine:
Morgan Levine was previously a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the department of Pathology at Yale University where she ran the Laboratory for Aging in Living Systems. In 2022, she was recruited to join Altos Labs as a Founding Principal Investigator at the San Diego Institute of Science. She currently leads a research group at Altos Labs working at the intersection of bioinformatics, cellular biology, complex systems, and biostatistics with the overall goal of understanding the molecular trajectories aging cells, tissues, and organisms take through time.

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Read more of our stories on aging: 
Aging gratefully: Will you be happier in old age?
► https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/happiness-old-age/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
Blood test can calculate your true biological age
► https://bigthink.com/health/calculate-your-biological-age/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
The brain undergoes a great “rewiring” after age 40
► https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/great-brain-rewiring-after-age-40/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description

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The science of super longevity | Dr. Morgan Levine

Don’t chase happiness. Become antifragile, with Tal Ben-Shahar
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Up next ►► The science of happiness, motivation, and meaning | Dan Ariely https://youtu.be/6yQiBT_W2VA 

Antifragility is the idea of putting pressure on a system, or human, the system or human actually grows bigger and stronger. 

Antifragile systems are all around us. One example of this is our muscular system. We go to the gym to lift weights. By doing so we are putting pressure on our system to help it grow stronger. The human body is an antifragile system. 

From a psychological perspective, antifragility comes in the form of PTG, or post-traumatic growth. After we experience a stressful event, we learn and grow to become more resilient. 

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Read the video transcript: https://bigthink.com/videos/happiness/

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About Tal Ben-Shahar:
Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar is an internationally renowned teacher and author in the fields of happiness and leadership. After graduating from Harvard with a BA in Philosophy and Psychology and a PhD in Organizational Behavior, Tal taught two of the most popular courses in Harvard’s history: Positive Psychology and The Psychology of Leadership. He then taught Happiness Studies at Columbia University. A prolific writer, Tal's books have appeared on best-sellers lists around the world and have been translated into more than 30 languages.

Tal Ben-Shahar consults and lectures to executives in multinational corporations, educational institutions, and the general public. Topics include leadership, education, ethics, happiness, self-esteem, resilience, goal setting and mindfulness. Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar is also the co-founder of the Happiness Studies Academy. Learn more here: https://www.happinessstudies.academy/

Tal is an avid sportsman and a certified yoga instructor whose work bridges Eastern and Western traditions, ancient wisdom and modern technology, science and art.

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Read more of our stories on happiness: 
Epicurus and the atheist’s guide to happiness
►►https://bigthink.com/thinking/epicureanism-greek-philosophy-atheists-happiness/ 
The meaning of happiness, according to a baker in ancient Pompeii
►► https://bigthink.com/the-past/ancient-rome-happiness/ 
How to avoid “toxic positivity” and take the less direct route to happiness
 ►► https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/avoid-toxic-positivity/ 

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Don’t chase happiness. Become antifragile | Tal Ben-Shahar | Big Think

How Peter Thiel foresaw the economic crisis
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Peter Thiel explains the lessons learned from the burst of the technology bubble.
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Peter Thiel:

Peter Thiel is an American entrepreneur, hedge fund manager and venture capitalist.  He is Clarium’s President and the Chairman of the firm’s investment committee, which oversees the firm’s research, investment, and trading strategies. Before starting Clarium, Peter served as Chairman and CEO of PayPal, an Internet company he co-founded in December 1998 and was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002.

Prior to founding PayPal, Peter ran Thiel Capital Management , the predecessor to Clarium, which started with $1 million under management in 1996. Peter began his financial career as a derivatives trader at CS Financial Products, after practicing securities law at Sullivan & Cromwell.

In addition to managing Clarium, Peter is active in a variety of philanthropic and educational pursuits; he sits on the Board of Directors of the Pacific Research Institute, the Board of Visitors of Stanford Law School, and is an adviser to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Peter received a BA in Philosophy from Stanford University and a JD from Stanford Law School.   He is self-described libertarian and a minority investor in Big Think.
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TRANSCRIPT:

Peter Thiel: Well, I had seen the tech bubble, and this one seemed crazier than the tech bubble, so that’s my personal answer. It was crazier in the sense that the technology bubble, at least at its core, was about something real and about progress and about building and creating new things. Once you had a hundred different online pet food companies, maybe it was not really about tech at all anymore, and that was the problem with it.  But, by contrast, if you think about something like the housing bubble where you had people speculating on the fifth house in Las Vegas or something like that, when there is something psychologically bizarre about people getting that excited about empty pieces of dirt, it was fundamentally dirt that was the most exciting because it was land and land speculation that had the biggest amount of leverage in it. So there was something really insane. The law of quantitative metrics, one can cite, so people were, the rent versus buying implied that housing prices needed to double so people’s expectations about future house price growth were…

Tom Stewart: But you saw that? You paid attention to the signals? A lot of people didn’t. What’s the psychology of that?

Peter Thiel: I think there’s just incredible collective psychology in these things, and there are all these self-reinforcing dynamics. You went to every sort of dinner conversation party in 2005 was about housing, just like it had been about tech in ’98 or ’99.

Tom Stewart: And so, at a certain point, you said this doesn’t feel right and I’m going to act on it?

Peter Thiel: Yes.

Tom Stewart: Or, there’s also the temptation to be the last person at the punch bowl before the Fed famously takes it away and that they got, just one more drug deal, one more housing deal, I can get it. You know, I can always quit…

Peter Thiel: Yeah. Generally speaking, you don’t really know when the last one’s going to be, so it’s probably prudent not to try to do that.

Big Think Transcript on Youtube

The science of super longevity | Dr. Morgan Levine

Don’t chase happiness. Become antifragile | Tal Ben-Shahar | Big Think

How Peter Thiel foresaw the economic crisis Peter Thiel | Big Think