A hot mic picked up Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping musing about medical breakthroughs, including organ transplants, that they suggested could allow humans to live beyond 150 years – or perhaps even achieve immortality.
But are these comments by the Russian and Chinese leaders, which were picked up during a Beijing summit on Wednesday, backed by scientific evidence?
Experts in human aging say some of these ideas remain far-fetched, but serious research is also increasingly revealing more about why we age – and how we could try to stop it.
Is there a human lifespan limit?
The conversation suggested that fending off the ravages of age was on the minds of Putin and Xi, who are both 72 and have not expressed any desire to step down.
