A year ago, Anatoly Brushkov, head of the Department of Geocryology at the Geological Faculty of Moscow State University, injected himself with an ancient bacterium aged 3.5 million years. He did this in order, in his words, to "prolong life." Despite all the absurdity of the statement, the scientist still has a justification for the act, and recently he reported about his current state of health.
Anatoly Brushkov claims that the place where the ancient bacteria was discovered, located in Yakutia, in permafrost conditions, was inhabited by ancient people who were able to live an unprecedentedly long time in comparison with their neighbors. Naturally, no one immediately infected themselves with an unknown bacterium. First, tests were carried out on rodents. After injecting the strains of the bacteria, the old rodents began to feel better and were even able to produce healthy offspring. Moreover, the introduction of a culture of bacteria into cereals stimulated grain growth and made plants resistant to environmental conditions.
As for the well-being of the scientist, he claims that now he feels much better than before, and has ceased to be tired, and his working capacity has increased.
“There was nothing terrible and surprising in taking and trying. It seems to me that after that I stopped getting tired, became able to work much longer, and do not catch a cold. But this, it seems to me, is not as interesting as the opportunity to explore the mechanism of this amazing duration. What if we somehow really find how the cell doesn't age? Then we could use these resources in a targeted manner and increase life expectancy not by 20%, but by as much as we want,”said Anatoly Brushkov.
And finally, a video about how one of the TV channels covered the scientist's act a year ago:
VLADIMIR KUZNETSOV