I found this article particularly interesting for several reasons.  The obvious one is that I am 68 and am feeling and seeing the signs of aging more and more every day.  This study seems to imply that the skin cells themselves actually do not die but simply "give up" as the support matrix around them deteriorates and collapses.

I read something similar to this a number of years ago.  Unfortunately it was so long ago that I haven't a prayer of resurrecting it.  However it dealt with brain cells.  In that article it implied that brain cells never actually die but are simply killed off by the general collapse of their support systems.  Our circulatory system which supplies oxygen and other nutrients to our brain cells simply becomes gradually more and more inefficient thus starving those cells.  As in this study perhaps the support structures within the brain itself begin to degerioriate and collapse in a similar fashion thus causing our brain cells to simply cease functioning.

It was suggested in that article that a normal brain, if properly supplied with unlimited oxygen and nutrients, could continue to survive indefinitely.  Not only that but it would continue to grow, develop, and continue learning and gathering information as well.

This would kind of suggest that given the proper support systems our bodies could actually live a quite healthy existence for a much longer period than we now enjoy.  There is a lot that we have yet to learn about the miracle of life and the complex system that is our bodies.  Who knows.  Perhaps the idea of Methuselah isn't so far fetched after all. 

I have long felt that our endocrine systems  hold the keys to our whole existence since that magical system seems to be the driving center for all of our bodily functions.  True our brains are the control centers but it is the endocrine systems under the control of our brains that ultimately issues all of the commands that keep our bodies functioning, growing, and developing.

Anytime something goes wrong in that amazing system we have major malfunctions in our bodies.  Anyway I am hoping to get a few comments to see if anyone else feels similarly on this subject.  Every day science finds more pieces to the great mystery of life and I can only hope that someday we may be able to truly control our own destiny to a much greater extent than we do now.