I was held hostage and liked it.

As I was about to pull into the Lowe's parking lot last evening to shop for some light bulbs and garden stuff, I made the mistake of turning on the radio and punching in my favorite station -- NPR -- national public radio.  Don't roll your eyes at me you young whippersnappers, I liked NPR when I was a toddler so this has nothing to do with me being old (even if I was, what's it to ya?), it has everything to do with me being a geek.  As I parked the car, a voice on the radio caught my attention.  It was some guy INCREDUOUSLY questioning another guy as to why he kept "something" in his garage, but he didn't say what that something was (needless to say I was a few minutes late to the conversation).  The other guy said something like ... "Because I thought it would be the last place anyone would think to look for it."  Of course, I was hooked from that moment until the next hour .... voluntarily held hostage in my car by RadioLab on NPR.  I just had to know what that man was keeping in his garage, that other people might want.  I saw the sun fade in my rear view mirror and the moon rise in front of me, and I realized time was getting away from me, but I truly could not leave the car or those soothing voices enlightening me about cells of all things.  Who knew cells were so fascinating?  Who was the guy keeping cells in his garage?  Why, it was Leonard Hayflick, of course, a guy I had never heard of, but apparently someone who in his younger days busted the chops of the established cell experts who touted the belief that cells are immortal in the right environment.  Hayflick discovered that cells are not immortal in that sense, and his discovery is now known as the Hayflick 50 or the Hayflick limit.  The really freaky thing is that cells not only count to 50 (and then expire), but if you freeze them in a suspended state and later unfreeze them, they will start counting from where they left off.  No crap, they really will.  If they were on number 16, they will pick up on number 17, count until it reaches 50 and expire!  That's woooo woooooo stuff there dudes ... and I was totally fascinated by that.  What's all that got to do with anything?  Well, the whole show which I gather was on aging, dying, mortality, immortality, etc. featured different people, including structural biologist Cynthia Kenyon who found a way to lengthen the life of a worm from 14 days to 28 days.  (Note:  She has since expanded their life span by six fold (125 days!)  Move over Ponce de Leon, Cynthia Kenyon is on the scene!  Isn't it slightly ironic that Ponce de Leon was searching for the Fountain of Youth and discovered Florida?  That strikes me as funny given Florida's current elderly population.  Sorry, getting back to Cynthia Kenyon's research into longevity (or as I like to call it the "fountain of youth") on those worms.  Her tinkering of one gene (get that ONE gene) in those worms, didn't just result in a longer "aged" life for them, the worms were kicking life in the pants almost until the time they ... ahem ... expired.  No wheelchairs need for them!

Okay, okay, I know some of you are now squirming in your seats about the morality of what this could potentially mean in the future.  At least for now, you can put your worries in your pocket,  because just as in life ... the debate about the consequences of a longer life span made up the rest of the show, and it too was interesting, but not nearly as exciting and fascinating as the quest to get there!

I won't pretend to be an expert and throw out my opinion on all that business above or the morality of some of it, but I will weigh in on those RadioLab guys who were the hosts of that program.  They grabbed me by the collar of my mind, expanded it a wee bit and made me like being taken hostage in my own car.  It was a perfectly good way to wile away an hour of my sweet time.  I watched the sun set, the moon rise, felt the spring breeze blow through the car window, and was pleasantly  entertained.  I love the imagination you have to use with radio!

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