1. UPMC is now in trials to use these procedures on humans suffering from massive blood loss caused by gunshot wounds, traumatic automobile accidents, or other lethal damage.
2. Heaven’s Gate was an American UFO religious cult founded in 1974 and based in San Diego, California. On March 26, 1997, police discovered the bodies of 39 members of the group who had participated in a mass suicide to reach what they believed was an extraterrestrial spacecraft following comet Hale–Bopp.
3. In 1899, cancer ranked as the nation’s seventh most lethal disease.
4. Additional details about this can be found at the American Cancer Institute here: https://www.cancer.org/latest-news/cancer-statistics-report-death-rate-down-23-percent-in-21-years.html.
5. For more information see: https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2012/dementia_20120411/en.
6. Frank Rosenblatt created the famous perceptron algorithm in 1957, the first computer that could learn new skills by trial and error, using a type of neural network that simulated human thought processes. Among his many other insights, Marvin Minsky’s strong suit was artificial neural networks. Both scientists believed it was ultimately possible to create machines that acted human.
7. Kleiner later became Kurzweil’s longtime business partner, and the chief financial officer of many of his companies.
8. The story of why Rosalind Franklin was not awarded the Nobel Prize is complicated. Her death in 1958 precluded her winning a Nobel Prize since the prizes are not awarded posthumously, and the Nobel committees had not completed their research nor made their final decisions before her death. Also, no more than three scientists could be awarded any one prize. But there are indications that Watson and Crick underplayed the importance of her role in revealing the first x-ray image of the DNA molecule that was so crucial to their work. In 1962, Watson suggested that he and Crick should have been awarded the Nobel in physiology or medicine (as they were), and Wilkins and Franklin should have been awarded the prize in chemistry. Later, much more information came out about the importance of Franklin’s work. And in 1982 Aaron Klug, Franklin’s colleague and the principal beneficiary in her will, was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for the very research Franklin had initiated and that she introduced to Klug before her death. Had she survived, it’s very likely she would have won the prize in 1982.
9. This has turned out not to be true. In fact, for the first time since the early part of the 20th century, life expectancy dropped in 2015, 2016, and 2017 in the United States. The major culprits: opioid overdoses and rising suicide rates. More recently, Kurzweil has predicted that by 2029 we will be increasing our life span by a year every year going into the future.
10. There is some doubt as to whether Steve Jobs actually said “dent in the universe.” During a 1985 Playboy interview, Jobs did use a very similar phrase, but instead said “ding in the universe.” You can find the entire interview at reprints.longform.org/playboy-interview-steve-jobs.
11. You can read a description of Hariri’s original patent at: patents.justia.com/patent/7045148.
12. Precisely speaking, this formula is known as the Gompertz-Makeham Law of Mortality. Gompertz’s original formula did not include “λ” or gamma. William Makeham, another English actuary and mathematician, added it in the mid-1800s. For more details on Gompertz’s law, explore “A Simple Derivation of the Gompertz Law for Human Mortality” by B. I. Shklovskii. A PDF is available at arxiv.org/PS_cache/q-bio/pdf/0411/0411019v3.pdf.
13. The “e” or epsilon in the formula is a variable commonly used in mathematics that has negligible effect, but is often included.
14. You can also see examples of the Face Project’s results in Sabatini’s 2016 TED Talk here: ted.com/talks/riccardo_sabatini_how_to_read_the_genome_and_build_a_human_being.
15. Stamatis passed away February 3, 2013, 35 years after he was diagnosed with cancer. He was either 98 or 102. He was never sure of his exact birth date. For more, read pappaspost.com/remembering-stamatis-moraitis-man-almost-forgot-die.
16. For more details on findings from Health Nucleus, see Human Longevity, Inc.’s paper, “Precision Medicine Screening Using Whole-Genome Sequencing and Advanced Imaging to Identify Disease Risk in Adults,” biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/05/03/133538, also subsequently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), doi: 10.1073/pnas.1706096114. Also, see Ryan Cross’s article “This $25,000 Physical Has Found Some ‘Serious’ Health Problems. Others Say It Has Serious Problems,” Science magazine, sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/25000-physical-has-found-some-serious-health-problems-others-say-it-has-serious.
17. Martine Rothblatt was also former president of Geostar and the world’s highest paid transgender person. In 2013, she made $38 million. washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/martine-rothblatt-she-founded-siriusxm-a-religion-and-a-biotech-for-starters/2014/12/11/5a8a4866-71ab-11e4-ad12-3734c461eab6_story.html.
18. For more about this remarkable event, read Pam Belluck, “Chinese Scientist Who Says He Edited Babies’ Genes Defends His Work,” New York Times, November 28, 2018; and Rob Stein, “Chinese Scientist Says He’s First to Create Genetically Modified Babies Using Crispr,” National Public Radio (Morning Edition), November 26, 2018, npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/11/26/670752865/chinese-scientist-says-hes-first-to-genetically-edit-babies.
19. Two studies link aging and reduced muscle mass. This study showed that an increase in muscle mass and exercise seemed to reduce the likelihood of cancer. See J. R. Ruiz, X. Sui, F. Lobelo, et al., “Muscular Strength and Adiposity as Predictors of Adulthood Cancer Mortality in Men,” Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention 18, no. 5 (2009): 1468–76, doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-08-1075, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2885882. For another study that indicates a correlation between increased muscular strength and longer life, see Jonatan R. Ruiz, Xuemei Sui, Felipe Lobelo, James R. Morrow, Allen W. Jackson, Michael Sjöström, et al., “Association Between Muscular Strength and Mortality in Men: Prospective Cohort Study,” BMJ 337 (2008): doi.org/10.1136/bmj.a439.
20. Though foreshadowed in earlier short stories, Isaac Asimov originally introduced his elegant Three Laws of Robots in his 1942 short story “Runaround,” which was later included in his 1950 landmark collection of short stories I, Robot. The laws read: “One, a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm…Two, a robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law…And law three, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.”
21. Ironically, Illumina, Inc., the DNA sequencing company used by Craig Venter and HLI, agreed to buy Pacific Biosciences in 2018 for $1.2 billion.
22. From Nicholas Wade, “Thrown Aside, Genome Pioneer Plots a Rebound,” New York Times, April 30, 2002, nytimes.com/2002/04/30/health/thrown-aside-genome-pioneer-plots-a-rebound.html.
23. Calico’s scientific paper published in Mammalian Genome can be viewed at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4935753.
24. This marks one of the first clinical applications of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. See Katarina Zimmer’s “First iPS Cell Trial for Heart Disease Raises Excitement, Concern” at the-scientist.com/news-opinion/first-ips-cell-trial-for-heart-disease-raises-excitement-concern-64743.
25. So far it seems there is little evidence that patients suffering from Alzheimer’s can be treated effectively with blood plasma from young donors. See Jocelyn Kaiser’s “Blood From Young People Does Little to Reverse Alzheimer’s in First Test” at sciencemag.org/news/2017/11/blood-young-people-does-little-reverse-alzheimer-s-first-test. However, scientists aren’t giving up, and studies are ongoing: sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/11/06/could-blood-plasma-be-the-fountain-of-youth.
26. In spring 2018, Tony Robbins posted on Facebook that he had just completed a stem cell procedure that “saved my shoulder after struggling with excruciating pain from spinal stenosis and, more recently, a torn rotator cuff” (facebook.com/TonyRobbins/posts/10156548872894060). This was at the Stem Cell Institute in Panama City, Panama.
27. Gates made two announcements in November 2017: He donated $50 million to the Dementia Discovery Fund in the United Kingdom, and $50 million more for start-ups focused on Alzheimer’s research. See Deniz Cam’s “Bill Gates Is Investing $100 Million in Alzheimer’s Research, Citing Family History,” forbes.com/sites/denizcam/2017/11/13/microsoft-billionaire-bill-gates-is-investing-100-million-in-alzheimers-research/#145c8c57328f.