Donald MacKillop is delighted with his new hand.  A product that promises to only get better and better is powered by separate motors in each digit.

Original Story:  Bionic hand 'gives realistic grip' (BBC News)
What's being billed as the world's most advanced bionic hand has been fitted to a man in Scotland.

The international council on aging has released a list of 10 things you can do to have a healthy happy new year.  The advice ranges from being socially active, wearing comfortable footwear, to getting enough sleep.

While these may not seem like breakthrough items, ignoring the little things daily will take a toll on your body.  After all, we need to stay in shape long enough until longevity technology arrives.

10 Ways to Achieve a Healthy, Happy New Year From International Council on Active Aging (PR Web)
For Baby Boomers and their parents, the International Council on Active Aging has a p ...

Apparently cats, not dogs, may be man's best friend, particularly when it comes to paving the way for groundbreaking research on Alzheimer's disease.  According to the author of this Bloomberg.com article: 
One tenth of adults over the age of 70 will have significant memory loss, half of those due to Alzheimers.  As the population ages that number is expe cted to quadruple.

Full Story:  Aging Cats Get Alzheimer's Disease, May Help Human Research (Bloomberg.com)
Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Aging cats who forget their owners, cry out in the night and become confused may be suffering from Alzheimer's disease. New research shows felines can suffer the same memory-robbing illness that caus ...

Below is a link to an article which demonstrates that the world is waking up to the fact that their is a problem with retirment planning now that people are living longer.  The author makes the usual statements regarding people not saving enough money for retirement; but, their still seems to be a lack of realization that people are living longer and longer lives.  Their is a real possiblity that those of us who expect to reach the average age of 77 quoted in the article  may possibly live much much longer. 

We may need to adjust our thinking radically to the realization that there is no particular age when we should retire.  It seems to me that the best retirement strategy is to stay gainfully employed; or even better, self employed. for as long as physically possible. 

Retirement was an artificial creation around the beginning of the last century anyway.  Befo ...

One inspiring story which shows how a mixture of personal tenacity and 21st century technology has improved one man's life more than we might have ever thought possible just a few short decades ago.  Also see www.raceagainstpain.com

One Leg, One Dream: Racecar Driver Races Against Pain (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)
SEBRING, Fla.----Personifying the endurance and survival of the human condition, chronic pain sufferer and "bionic man" Michael Roman recently received his official license to race last weekend in Sebring, Florida.

More evidence that caloric restriction helps defeat the aging process.  Monkeys on a low calorie diet have stronger immune systems than those on a standard diet.

Research Notebook (The Oregonian)
from reduced-calorie diet A study at Oregon Health & Science University has found that a reduced-calorie diet delays aging of the immune system in monkeys.

Ray Kurzweil has predicted that by 2029 mankind will have sufficiently developed healthcare and biotechnology to ensure that for each year you age, you gain one year of life expectancy.  Aubrey de Grey of the Methusaleh Foundation has championed Kurzweils concept of an actuarial escape velocity beyond which an individual has a statisical probability of continuing on indefinitely.

James Canton, author of a new book, "The Extreme Future: The Top Trends That Will Reshape the World for the Next 5, 10, and 20 Years." has lowered this estimate to roughly a decade away.  Can this timeframe be trusted, or is this a case of playing a sensationalisticly optimistic guessing game in order to generate publicity?

 The original story is quoted here: 

Americans are living longer.  Baby Boomers have the dollars to fund the research the rest of the aging world wants to see.  Original Story >>>  Anti-Aging Conference Offers New Ideas for Not Getting Old (Fox News)  The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine hosts its annual conference this week, expecting more than 6,000 attendes from the $56 billion anti-aging industry.

A recent article from the St. Petersburg times highlights the fact that one of the U.S. most aged populations wants the state to pay for aging research.

96 percent of Floridians contacted in a recent survey believe the state should lead in such life-improving research.

Another 77 percent support the state giving financial aid to recruit research labs and 59 percent would pay a dollar a week more in taxes toward such a goal.

Floridians support medical research spending (St. Petersburg Times)
The results of a poll are presented at a Tampa NIH meeting. TAMPA - Surprise, surprise. Floridians, we of the knee replacements, Bo ...

New data from Scotland provides more evidence of the increases in longevity we've been seeing elsewhere.  Scotlands data seems to indicate some correlation between income and longevity.  As you may recall, a recent study in the U.S. seemed to suggest surprisingly that longevity and income were not very well correlated.  Perhaps there is some relationship to income for more dramatic divergences in economic status?

People are living longer than ever (The Herald)
People are living longer than ever, according to statistics released yesterday, though the poorer parts of Scotland continue to lag far behind the rest of the UK.

It looks like Senator Orrin Hatch shares our view that stem cell research will benefit from the next congress activities.  Here's a link to an UPI story regarding stem cell legislation and his feeling regarding the potential of overturning a veto.

Hatch optimistic about stem cell research (UPI)
WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, says he believes the next Congress will pass legislation expanding stem cell research, over a presidential veto if necessary.

With the Democrats taking office, it certainly seems as if there is a push for more stem cell research.  Below are a few of the recent headlines showing a move toward a more pro research stance.

Finance Committee approves $181M loan to California's Stem Cell Research Institute (News-Medical-Net)
The California Stem Cell Research and Cures Finance Committee on Monday unanimously approved a $181 million loan to the state's stem cell research institute, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, in an effort to start the program, which has been stalled by lawsuits, the Los Angeles Times reports (La Ganga, Los Angeles Times, 11/21).