

Long before he was creating zombie rodents for the Pentagon, biochemist Mark Roth became fascinated with the idea of immortality. Now, he's found a way to "significantly increase life span[s]" – at least in worms. And the key is the same substance that Roth uses to turn mice into the semi-undead.

Roth discovered that if you cut off certain creatures' oxygen supply in just the right way, they won't die. Instead, they'll fall into a kind of suspended animation, or hibernation. They wont take a breath. Their hearts won't beat. Wounds stop bleeding;

nearly any injury becomes survivable, and the brain shuts down without damage. “If you were shot, this is exactly what you would want,” Roth says. And when the wounds are bound up, the critters can be brought back, good as new. All that's needed is a whiff of a hydrogen sulfide, which binds to mitochondria and impedes the body’s ability to use oxygen.

In order to better understand the mechanics of how it works, Roth and his colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center "turned to the tiny nematode, a workhorse of laboratory science because its biology is similar in many respects that of humans," according to a statement from the Center. "The worms also are ideally suited for studying life span, because they normally live for only two to three weeks."

The researchers found, to their surprise, that nematodes that were raised in a carefully controlled atmosphere with low concentrations of H2S (50 parts per million in room air) did not hibernate. Instead, their metabolism and reproductive activity remained normal, their life span increased...