Why does the word ‘longevity’ seem to be everywhere at the moment? The final piece in our round-up of the last year in longevity looks at how ageing, wellness and biohacking cropped up in the media, pop culture and…in discussions between Putin and Xi? Please enjoy this Friday read:

Polaris is not always the North Star. Due to Earth's precession, over the course of 26,000 years, Polaris, Alderamin, Vega, and Thuban take turns as the closest prominent star to the celestial pole.

Longevity clinics grow in popularity while biohackers are hospitalised by peptide injections—and does Ozempic slow the ageing process? We take a look at the last year in longevity medicine:

Remarkable result: LLMs memorise huge chunks of books verbatim, and trivial prompt engineering can encourage them to spit out the text. This is interesting because: • I wouldn’t necessarily have expected them to ‘store’ this much word-for-word in their structure—more pick up the ‘ideas’ from texts.

‘The fact that people with obesity rebound more slowly on some other program nobody is offering you and which doesn’t scale is irrelevant and highlighting it is basically a sort of moral judgement on the failure of one billion people.’ Great piece.

Excited to see this develop 🙌🏻 Super initiative, punchy and engaging pieces, and big vision. Wouldn't expect anything else from @statto.bsky.social! 👏🏼 Go strong!

Checking something in my book and came across this note…I’m proud of past-me for including this pedantry! The statistic it’s referring to is ‘A 20-year-old today has better odds of having a living grandmother than a 20-year-old in the 1800s did of having a living mother.’

Live longer, hopefully healthier?

Billion-dollar bets on cellular reprogramming, biotech's rough year, and early FDA success for healthy lifespan extension in dogs. The biggest business news in longevity in the last year:

Check out our first news article from @thelongevityinitiative.org: a round-up of longevity science in 2025! There will be more posts this week on longevity in business, research funding, medicine and comms and policy (Netflix docs and Putin hot-mics, anyone?) so please follow to be first to hear!

The future of health depends on longevity science. Progress in science depends on better policy, regulation and funding—that’s why I founded @thelongevityinitiative.org with @kshoylev.bsky.social. Help us build the infrastructure for improved longevity policy and education in 2026. Link below 👇

There are just hours of 2025 remaining…so it’s your last chance to support The LI before the end of the tax year! Donations intended to support @thelongevityinitiative.org can be made via Vitalism Charitable Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Donate here:

The majority of poor health and deaths globally are caused by diseases that become common with age. But public policy has yet to catch up with ageing science, and longevity research is underappreciated, and underfunded. We exist to change that. Support us here:

Things you can do to live a longer, healthier life: 1. Eat a balanced diet 2. Exercise 3. Follow @thelongevityinitiative.org 4. Sign up for our newsletter at thelongevityinitiative.org/news/ 5. Tell friends and family to do the same (because living a long, healthy life will be no fun without them!)

The future of health depends on better longevity science. That depends on more regular people and politicians knowing what longevity *is*. Thanks to collaboration with Vitalism Charitable Foundation, US donors can support The LI tax-efficiently. Donate before year-end 👉

My friend Andrew Steele is building this: The majority of poor health and deaths globally are caused by diseases that become common with age... "But public policy has yet to catch up.. & longevity science is underappreciated, and underfunded We exist to change that" 🧑‍⚕️⚕️ thelongevityinitiative.org

Annette, the last of the Dionne quintuplets (the world’s first to survive beyond infancy), died aged 91. RIP. Fascinating case study of the genetic contribution to longevity: the identical sisters died aged 20, 35, 67, 91 and 91—clearly it’s more than just genes!

I co-founded a longevity think tank and educational organisation! Please welcome @thelongevityinitiative.org to Bluesky with a follow, repost of our introductory thread…and, we’re doing an end-of-year fundraiser! Visit thelongevityinitative.org/donate/ for more info :)

Just in time for Christmas, here are my top 3 tips for a healthier 2026! Watch this, and more details in the thread below…

Someone remake “It’s a Wonderful Life” but Mr. Potter believes that hoarding is morally required so he can devote resources to delivering a far future with trillions of humans while George Bailey is like, “Gosh Darnit! What if taking care of people today is what takes care of people in the future?!”

Just in time for Christmas, here are my top 3 tips for a healthier 2026! Watch this, and more details in the thread below…

The days will start getting longer… …wait for it… …now! Winter solstice 2025, December 21st, 15:03 UTC

On this day in 1989, The Simpsons officially premiered as its own series so here’s a short thread of language facts relating to the show, starting with this… In the Spanish version of The Simpsons, Bart’s “eat my shorts” catchphrase is changed to multiplícate por cero (“multiply yourself by zero”).

This could well be true in the future. It’s absolutely not true now. AI is only as good as the data you train it on. We don’t have annual MRIs going back decades for…almost anyone? I’d far rather a radiologist read my MRI than a pilot, even though pilots are highly trained…

This is a superb explanation of why we age from an evolutionary perspective, packed full of fun animal examples! It makes clear that evolution *did* optimise for lifespan (why wouldn’t it?), and that implies intervening in aging might not be that hard…

Most doctors think cryopreservation…might work? The average doctor thinks an ideally cryopreserved patient has about a 25% chance of being revived! Interesting and intellectually honest analysis of a survey by @emilkendziorra.bsky.social and @arielzj.bsky.social:

Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.

🧵 Is it a super flu year? Who knows, but I think the current reporting is stupid. A pissed off thread using data. Firstly - here are today's headlines and some from the last 3 years... spot the difference. 1/10

missed this last week: trains in Lancaster were cancelled after AI-generated images of a bridge collapse were shared on social media following a real earthquake. god, we're really not ready to resist an engagement-driven online ecosystem empowered by AI fakes www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Big new blogpost! My guide to data visualization, which includes a very long table of contents, tons of charts, and more. --> Why data visualization matters and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful. www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/salonis-gu...

Having grey hair might mean you dodged melanoma! Serious damage to DNA can cause pigment cells to become senescent, ultimately dying and not dyeing your hair, while cancer-causing chemicals can override this process and allow damaged cells to live on:

Time for some podcasting! My first time at Spotify Studios in London…

Great culture can save lives. Literally. Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

Just imagining how much better it would be if ALL news stories about vaccine-preventable illnesses were illustrated with pictures of people with the disease, not pictures of needle injections. If you must show something that people will find scary & unpleasant, make it the disease, not the cure.

The WHO is calling for GLP-1s to be muchmore widely available: Their statement read: ‘[GLP-1s] represent a new chapter in the gradual conceptual shift in how society approaches obesity—from a “lifestyle condition” to a complex, preventable and treatable chronic disease.’

Wow - this guy must be really, REALLY bad with money if an extra £208 per month will “ruin” his retirement. Let’s take a look at his situation based on what he told the @Telegraph Because this does NOT add up! No, this is not a “poor pensioner” scrabbling around for pennies… 🧵1/9

Outstanding! royalanniversarytrust.org.uk/winners/univ...

Just saw that @bengoldacre.bsky.social’s brilliant medical records research platform OpenSAFELY has won a Queen Elizabeth Prize for Education. Fantastic and well-deserved! Watch this to find out what it does:

Disappointing news: GLP-1s may not be ‘everything drugs’as semaglutide (Wegovy) fails to slow progression in Alzheimer’s. Only reprieve I can think of is, since patients in this trial already had cognitive impairment, maybe they started too late?

Disappointing news: GLP-1s may not be ‘everything drugs’as semaglutide (Wegovy) fails to slow progression in Alzheimer’s. Only reprieve I can think of is, since patients in this trial already had cognitive impairment, maybe they started too late?

I had a fantastic conversation with Matt Kaeberlein on the Optispan Podcast! We get deep into the social, ethical and economic consequences of aging, and also pretty deep into the science too—I do love nerding out and learning with biologists and doctors.

This is a superb account of the annual meeting of the American Society for Tropical Medicine & Hygiene One crucial point: the recent sharp, sudden cuts in US aid for health are MUTUALLY damaging to both recipient nations AND the US—see our recent report on this: www.kielinstitut.de/publications...

So-called "smart" devices are pushed heavily for the holidays, but be mindful of what you're opting that gift recipient into. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

“Maximally truth-seeking”

WhatsApp is *so bad* for privacy and security. Today I noticed a new issue: it won’t let you take pictures in-app if its camera permission is set to ‘Ask every time’—it has to be set to be allowed constantly to work.

I really enjoyed this from @peterottsjo.bsky.social, which isn’t just dunking on the NYT, but also beautifully covers how the media systematically misrepresents longevity. ‘The problem isn’t fringe gimmicks—the problem is that almost all mainstream outlets treat that perimeter as the field.’

The National Institute on Aging’s 2026 proposed budget is over 40% less than 2025. If these cuts are passed on proportionally to the Division of Aging Biology, that will take US federal funding of longevity science from $1.04 per American to 62 cents!

This is a great video from @hankgreen.bsky.social on the importance of @wikipedia.org: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zi0...

Hitler quite possibly did only have one ball. This and some significantly more nuanced analysis of the strengths and limitations of polygenic risk scores from @adamrutherford.bsky.social: