http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkroll/2015/10/07/chemistry-nobel-prize-explains-why-we-dont-have-tumors-hanging-off-us-all-the-time/Perhaps the new science is beginning to shed light on the nature of aging and on how to regenerate at a DNA level.
This research is revolutionary in the way it proves that there are mechanisms at work which repair and rejuvenate damaged DNA in bacteria. They have yet to take the next step and see how through DNA transference, the DNA repair sequences in our gut bacteria could indeed transfer into our own DNA, giving people whom harbor the most vigorous and resilient strains of rejuvenating bacteria an advantage when it comes to longevity.
The bacteria in our skin which are exposed to UV light and excrete vitamin D and other growth factors, also possess these DNA sequences responsible for repairing DNA damaged by UV radiation.
I will take this thought train even further and postulate that perhaps the genetic sequences which have been found in these bacteria, to be actively diagnosing and rebuilding of other damaged DNA sequences, also possess the ability to epigenetically alter DNA expression creatively! Meaning that under some circumstances the repairs which are conducted may also include deliberate alterations, bio-engineered in a way which improves the functioning of the DNA sequence in relation to its ever evolving environment.
This symphony of life works synergisticly to hold back the forces of entropy, which without these repair mechanisms, would tear our molecular bonds apart. There is a continual cohesiveness, regeneration and evolution of the life thread which holds all beings together. Certain animals through necessity or sheer will to survive have managed to push back against the rate of DNA decay. Many other animals of our size and metabolic demands have their DNA degenerate at much higher rates than our own, there may indeed be another factor to our longevity which has yet to be discovered.
Its generally recognized that because humans have delayed development, that offspring must be cared for, for extended periods of time, and societies are even reliant on the grandparents to live long enough to help pass on their knowledge and provide support to their grandchildren.
Still, how doth the necessity for longer lifespans manifest in reality of human beings who now live to beyond 100 years of age? Could these genetic repair sequences receive biofeedback messages from the environment? or even take orders directly from the electrical signals of the central nervous system, which instruct the DNA to hold things together and slow aging by any means necessary, and with this synergy between mind and matter, by the vital force of will alone, mankind has been able to evolve past all previous limitations, including one of the greatest limitations to the development of wisdom , a short lifespan.