At a military parade in Beijing in September, Xi Jinping, 72, was overheard saying to Vladimir Putin, then also 72: “these days they say that at 70 one’s still a child”. Putin replied that, thanks to biotechnology, “human organs can be continuously transplanted, and people can live younger and younger, and even achieve immortality”. Xi responded that he’d heard there was a chance of living to 150 “this century”.

It was a reminder that many powerful people take the quest to slow or even reverse ageing very seriously – driven by a mix of real scientific momentum and techno-futurist hype.

Who wants to live for ever?

Stories about elixirs of life and fountains of youth are older than history. A plant with rejuvenating properties features in the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, which was firs

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