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The Fountain of Youth: 10 Stories About Our Obsession With Living Forever

Our longing to turn back the clock has brought us everything from pricey face creams to cryogenic chambers.

Amy Maoz

Read when you’ve got time to spare.

At what age does adding another birthday candle go from a thrill to slog? Society’s obsession with turning back the clock has brought us everything from pricey face creams and injectable toxins to cryogenic chambers and “miracle” diets. Explore this collection of great reads on some of our most quixotic attempts at staying forever young.

Image by Crispin la valiente/Getty Images

How To Live Forever: Meet the Extreme Life-Extensionists

Some sleep on electromagnetic mats, others pop up to 150 pills a day. But are ‘life extensionists’ any closer to finding the key to longevity?

Finding the Fountain of Youth in an Ancient Irish Bog

The peat found in some anti-oxidant-rich wetlands has preserved the youthfulness of thousand-year-old corpses. Can it do the same for those who are still alive?

What If Aging Weren’t Inevitable, but a Curable Disease?

If this controversial idea gains acceptance, it could radically change the way we treat getting old.

Was Jeanne Calment the Oldest Person Who Ever Lived—or a Fraud?

Some researchers have cast doubt on the record of the celebrated supercentenarian.

The Wonder Drug for Aging (Made From One of the Deadliest Toxins on Earth)

It’s based on the substance that causes botulism. That’s part of what protects Allergan’s $2.8 billion Botox empire.

The Fall of “Anti-Aging” Skin Care

Brands are still selling the idea of trying to look younger—they’ve just changed the vocabulary.

I Biohacked for 10 Weeks to Try to Live Forever

At the dawn of a new decade, I wondered: How many more decades can I live?

Searching Sephora for an Antidote to Aging—and Grief

Five years after her mother’s death, while still grieving and suddenly middle-aged, one writer turns to beauty products to cure what ails her.

Why I Hope to Die at 75

An argument that society and families—and you—will be better off if nature takes its course swiftly and promptly.

Searching for the Fountain of Youth

I went to Florida recently to follow the traces of the traces of the legend of Juan Ponce de León.