On rare occasions we come across a news item that is not controversial, damning or otherwise based on negative sensationalism. Today is one such day. The accouncement of the MitoSENS project and funding for SENS research and the Methuselah Foundation is inspiring news indeed and not just for Immortalists, Transhumanists and other fringe movements and sub-cultures but for all of humanity. I don't think I am overstating the case if I suggest that we are witnessing the dawn of a new era in how science may transcend the chains of traditional grant-based funding and enable individuals to take greater responsibility for theirs' and their loved one's future by participating in donor-based research funding. The time has arrived when a non-scientist or non-millionaire can participate in guiding the scientific progress of humanity by choosing what project to donate and subsequently participate in funding and founding.
In the case of SENS, with two of the strands now being investigated by benchwork rather than opinion, namely LysoSENS and now MitoSENS, the debates can cease whilst experimental work will reveal, in due course, the veracity of those hypotheses. More importantly, with two of the seven strands being actively researched it means that SENS need no longer be constrained by how it positions itself in respect to the opinion of the scientific or press community, enabling its constitutents to adopt new strategies or alter investigative approaches without fear of castigation. That means more science and less PR, and that is good news too.
