Hi, Wbreeze,
“What can I do?” is indeed a million dollar question! You are now going to study Life Sciences, and (like most people here) will be involved in biomedical research. That in itself is a huge contribution. Doing research for yourself and choosing a healthy life-style may be even more important.
Apart from that, you can raise the awareness of this issue (“spread the meme”), talk and try to convince people around you, make a presentation in class.
Consider writing or translating stuff into Hebrew and uploading it here at ImmInst or the other Israeli blogs (which until now have had few contributions):
http://www.transhuma...languages/C126/http://longerlife.blogli.co.il/ or
http://israblog.nana...asp?blog=225403 Increasing the bulk of writing on the net will draw more people in. Building up our community is the most important task. We can do it either through meetings or through internet forums. There are now very few people in Israel who even bother with these questions. Only when more people get interested and involved, we can talk about any real influence or contribution.
Nick Bostrom said it much better:
http://www.nickbostr...ble/dragon.html "How You can help
1. Spread the word. If you have a website or a blog, please consider linking to this page. Share your thoughts with friends and colleagues. Write letters to editors to comment on newspaper coverage of prolongevity. Challenge snide and shortsighted remarks about aging when appropriate. Make some noise.
2. Organize. If you are active in some organization (e.g. a political party, a religious community, a professional society), consider if there is any way that you could build support within that organization for extended healthy lifespan and the research needed to achieve it.
3. Give. Consider donating to the Methuselah Mouse Prize. This is a prize for extending the remaining lifespan of middle-aged mice. Science prizes have a strong track record of stimulating achievement. A clear success in mouse would pave the way for a larger program to translate the methods for human use.
4. Take responsibility. If you are a major philanthropist, you have the opportunity to make a big difference. Likewise, if you are e.g. a journalist, an opinion leader, a government official, a scientific authority, or on the board of a major research foundation, you have special opportunities to exert influence, and, consequently, a special responsibility to show some initiative.
5. Think creatively. Use your own your own brain to think about what would be the best way for you to contribute.