Genetic Research Spurs Thoughts Of Biblical Life Spans

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- A young man climbs from bed, stares into a mirror and glimpses his future. He has just turned 34. His body is trim, his hair thick and dark. But what's that around his eyes? Those crow's-feet are getting harder to ignore. And do his teeth look a bit ground down by decades of chewing, or is it his imagination?

He will probably repeat the same check tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow -- about 16,000 more times if he, like the average American, dies at around 80. "I don't think 80 years is long enough. There's a lot of things I want to do," he laments. But what can he -- or anyone -- do about getting old? He can't stop it, any more than he can dispel rain clouds roiling on the horizon, any more than ancient alchemists could distill a real elixir of immortality.