Aubrey de Grey facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Aubrey de Grey
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De Grey in 2018
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| Born |
Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey
20 April 1963 London, England
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| Nationality | British |
| Education | Harrow School |
| Alma mater | Trinity Hall, Cambridge (BA, PhD) |
| Occupation | President and CSO of LEVF |
| Known for |
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| Spouse(s) |
Adelaide Carpenter
(m. 1991; div. 2017) |
Aubrey de Grey (born April 20, 1963) is a British scientist. He studies how people age and how to stop it. He believes that new medical technologies might help people alive today live much longer. They might even avoid dying from old age.
De Grey has written books like Ending Aging. He is also known for his work in mathematics. He made an important discovery about a math problem called the Hadwiger–Nelson problem.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Aubrey de Grey grew up in London, England. His mother was an artist. She encouraged him to study science and math. These were subjects she wasn't very good at herself.
De Grey went to Harrow School. Later, he studied computer science at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University. He earned his first degree in 1985.
Career Highlights
After college, de Grey worked on artificial intelligence (AI). This is about making computers think like humans. In the early 1990s, he changed his focus. He became interested in the science of aging. He taught himself a lot about biology by reading books and going to science meetings.
In 2000, Cambridge University gave him a PhD. This was for his book about how tiny parts of our cells, called mitochondria, relate to aging.
Fighting Aging with SENS
Aubrey de Grey believes we already know enough to create medicines that fight aging. He thinks the biggest challenge is getting enough money for research.
His main work focuses on a detailed plan called strategies for engineered negligible senescence (SENS). This plan aims to stop the body from getting old and weak. It wants to prevent problems like memory loss and physical decline that come with age.
In 2009, he helped start the SENS Research Foundation. This group works to find ways to fix the damage aging causes. They want these new treatments to be available to everyone.
The Methuselah Foundation, which de Grey also helped start, has a special prize. It's called the Methuselah Mouse Prize. This prize gives money to scientists who can make mice live longer than ever before. The goal is to encourage research into extending life.
In 2007, de Grey wrote the book Ending Aging. In 2008, he said that the first person to live 1,000 years might already be alive. They could even be between 50 and 60 years old right now.
Math Discoveries
In 2018, Aubrey de Grey made a big step in mathematics. He helped solve a long-standing problem called the Hadwiger–Nelson problem. This problem is about coloring graphs. A graph is a set of points connected by lines. His discovery was the first progress on this problem in over 60 years!
Xenocatabolism Idea
De Grey also came up with an idea called xenocatabolism. This is about using tiny living things, like microbes, to help our bodies. He thinks we could put special enzymes from microbes into our bodies. These enzymes could break down harmful waste that builds up as we age.
He got this idea by studying soil from graveyards. He found that some bacteria in the soil could break down substances that our bodies can't. He believes we could learn from these bacteria to improve our own bodies' ability to clean themselves.
His Views on the Future
Living Longer and Healthier
Aubrey de Grey strongly believes that medical science can help people live much longer. He thinks we can avoid the diseases and weaknesses that come with old age.
He uses the term Methuselarity. This means a time when medical treatments will keep people healthy enough to live until even better treatments are invented. This way, people could keep living indefinitely. He calls this "longevity escape velocity." He thinks there's a good chance this could happen in about 15 years.
De Grey also thinks that many people have a "pro-aging trance." This means they just accept aging and death as unavoidable. He believes this way of thinking slows down research into anti-aging medicine.
Debates and Discussions
In 2005, a magazine called MIT Technology Review held a challenge. They offered a prize to anyone who could prove de Grey's SENS ideas were wrong. No one was able to completely disprove his ideas. However, the magazine also said that de Grey hadn't fully proven his ideas either. They noted that some of his proposals need more scientific knowledge and technology to be tested.
Other scientists have also discussed de Grey's ideas. Some agree with his approach, while others say that his specific treatments haven't been proven to extend life yet. However, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) has even supported some SENS research projects.
Future of Work
De Grey believes that robots and computers will do most jobs in the future. Because of this, he thinks we will need a "universal basic income." This means everyone would get a regular payment, whether they work or not. It would be a new way to share wealth.
Cryonics
Aubrey de Grey is also a "cryonicist." This means he plans to have his body frozen after he dies. He hopes that in the future, science will be advanced enough to bring him back to life and cure any diseases he had. He thinks it's a shame that more people don't understand or believe in cryonics. He hopes more research will be done to make it better.
Images for kids
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Aubrey de Grey explaining the SENS approach in a talk in 2010
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Aubrey de Grey during an interview with Stephen Sackur at the St. Gallen Symposium in 2014
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See also
In Spanish: Aubrey de Grey para niños
