What is life? How long will it last? Will we ever invent a machine that just creates pizza out of thin air? These are the questions that have riddled mankind for centuries. Technology is inching closer and closer to the fabled idea of life longevity. Some theorists speculate that within fifty years or so the human race will expand their lifespan by at least half. Sure, that will probably leave our generation in the cold, dead earth but we can at least find out how long we are going to live! Wait what? Yeah this device/watch/thingamajig purports to do just that.
Researchers from Lancaster University in the U.K. have created something they are calling the Endotheliometer, which they say can tell, within reason, how long we are going to live. It, in essence, measures our mortality. How in the heck does it do that? It all has to do with layer of our cells called the endothelium. As we age, and boy do we age, this layer slowly dissipates. The gadget, then, measures how much of this stuff we have floating around in our body and computes our lifespan accordingly. Of course, this does not account for accidents like a piano falling on our heads but how could it?
Could this be the ultimate smartwatch? Well, maybe. However, there are currently no plans to put this tech in consumer’s hands. There is only an early prototype for now, although the creators say they would like to make a consumer grade model at some point. Yay, now we’ll always be reminded of just how fragile our existence is!
