My peers of a certain age will remember an Oil of Olay commercial about deciding not to grow old gracefully, but rather to "fight it every step of the way."
And while we spend billions trying to turn back time, the Fountain of Youth has yet to be found at the bottom of a lotion bottle.
But one researcher from Harvard Medical School, David Sinclair, believes the secret to stopping the aging process is closer than we think.
"I wouldn't begin to put a limit on the human lifespan," he says.
Sinclair has spent the past 20 years looking for ways to help people live longer, healthier lives.
In an exclusive look at his strictly guarded mouse lab, Sinclair showed us how his research team is looking to stop the clock on aging.
It was Sinclair's research on resveratrol, a molecule found in grapes, that made headlines a decade ago when it showed promising results in keeping overfed mice as healthy as lean mice. Sinclair even chose to test resveratrol on himself, something he has been doing for the past 10 years, and he says he's feeling fit and healthy. Likewise, his parents, who are in their 70s, report similar results from taking resveratrol.

Today, Sinclair has taken his research even further. By prematurely aging mice, he is able to test new molecules on them in an attempt to return them to their younger, healthier state. He's hopeful that the molecules will one day help prevent or delay diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's in humans. All of this, of course, is still very much in the research phase, but Sinclair is confident that his work will lead to many of us living longer and healthier lives.
"Can we one day live to 150?" he asks. "I don't see why not; it's just a matter of when."
 Who do you think is a global game changer, and what person would you like to see featured in this series? Let me know on Twitter (@katiecouric) or on Tumblr.

http://news.yahoo.com/katie-couric-aging-mice-harvard-researcher-david-sinclair-035336385.html

 A 111-year-old retired Japanese educator who enjoys poetry has been recognized as the world's oldest living man.

Sakari Momoi received a certificate from Guinness World Records on Wednesday. He succeeds Alexander Imich of New York, who died in June at the age of 111 years, 164 days.

The world's oldest living person is also Japanese: Misao Okawa, a 116-year-old woman from Osaka.

Momoi was born Feb. 5, 1903, in Fukushima prefecture, where he became a teacher. He moved to the city of Saitama, north of Tokyo, after World War II and was a high school principal there until retirement.

At the televised ceremony, Momoi wore a dark suit and silver tie, with his white hair neatly combed. He stood up from his wheelchair and moved to a chair next to it with little assistance.

Asked how he felt about the record, Momoi pushed his back upright and said he wants to live longer.

"Say, another two years," he said.

Momoi said he enjoys reading books, especially Chinese poetry, and sometimes practices calligraphy.

He said there is no special trick for his longevity, but his caregivers say Momoi keeps early hours and eats healthy, according to NHK public television.

He has five children and lives at a nursing home in Tokyo.

Momoi is one of 54,000 centenarians in Japan. The country is the fastest aging in the world and has the highest average life expectancy — 80.21 for men and 86.61 for women.

http://news.yahoo.com/111-old-japan-recognized-oldest-man-065238508.html

Name: Betty Reid Soskin
Age: 93

Betty Reid Soskin has been an office worker, a record store owner and a political staffer. But it wasn't until she was well into her 80s that she found her dream job.

Seven years ago, she became a park ranger at the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, Calif. Three times a week, she shares with visitors what it was like to work in a segregated union hall during World War II -- how she never saw herself as a "Rosie" since black women weren't hired to do the same work as white women.

"It seems to me that all of the things I've done leading up to this period were in preparation for what I'm living now," said Soskin, who is the country's oldest full-time park ranger. "So it's rather an enviable spot to be in. I wouldn't think of retiring."

Soskin says she joined the park service "almost accidentally" after helping advise on the creation of the park while working as a field representative for a local state assembly person.

A social activist for much of her life, Soskin made news last year for speaking out against the government shutdown, which left her furloughed from work.

"I still think of her as an activist, but she's not out there on the picket lines anymore," said park superintendent Tom Leatherman. "She's found a way to tell those stories she thinks need to be told, but is doing it in a way which is very non-confrontational and is very personal."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/america-s-oldest-workers--why-we-refuse-to-retire-190255455.html

Name: John Fraser Hart
Age: 90

Taking one of Professor John Fraser Hart's geography classes at the University of Minnesota is like taking a step back in time.

The World War II veteran is known for donning a bow tie and using a carousel slide projector to show off his collection of tens of thousands of Kodachrome slides of landscapes across the country, all of which he's taken himself.

"In some ways he feels like he is a relic of an earlier time but he doesn't apologize for it at all," said retired University of Minnesota professor John Adams, who worked with Hart for nearly 40 years.

While Hart's style may not appeal to everyone, many students praise him in online reviews, noting his "wacky sense of humor" and his "all-around charming and entertaining" personality.

In more than 50 years of teaching, Hart has published 15 books and taught more than 50,000 students.

While he could have afforded to retire long ago, Hart said he simply loves his job too much.

"I've learned a lot and I have a chance to share with students," he said. "Each year, I think I keep getting a little bit better at what I'm doing."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/america-s-oldest-workers--why-we-refuse-to-retire-190255455.html

Name: Jack B. Weinstein
Age: 93

Nominated to the federal bench by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967, Jack Weinstein estimates that he has heard roughly 25,000 legal cases in his career, touching on everything from discrimination against African-American students to gun manufacturing.

And his decisions have made him "one of the most renowned judges in the history of the federal judiciary," according to a 2013 American Bar Association journal profile of the U.S. District Court judge.

Long known for his judicial activism, Weinstein said he's proud of the influence he has had on the law — no matter how controversial. "Society in this country is constantly changing, so the law has to be adjusted," he said.

He has long crusaded against mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders, while in more recent rulings he has battled what he said were excessive prison sentences for a man who had viewed child pornography.

He still wakes each morning at 5 a.m. so he can exercise (he enjoys swimming in his pool) and make breakfast for his wife before being driven from his home in Long Island, N.Y. to the Brooklyn courthouse.

Weinstein says he has no plans to retire, citing his love for "the excitement of the law" and the opportunity to help people and "occasionally improve society, even if only very modestly

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/america-s-oldest-workers--why-we-refuse-to-retire-190255455.html

They say golf is a game you can play for a lifetime. So long as you're upright and swinging, that means you have a chance to make an ace, just like 103-year-old Gus Andreone did in Florida on Wednesday.

Andreone, the oldest member of the PGA of America, made the hole-in-one at Palm Aire Country Club in Sarasota, Fla. He used a driver from the green tees on the 113-yard 14th hole at the Lakes Course.

"I hit it solid and the ball then hit the ground about 30 yards from the green and kept rolling, rolling and rolling," Andreone said, according to PGA.com. "It fell into the hole, which was cut on the right middle part of the green. Miracles do happen once in a while."

Anderone, who now has eight lifetime aces, may well be the oldest man to have ever recorded a hole-in-one. The apparent prior record holder was Elsie McLean, who made a hole-in-one at 102 years old in 2007.  Anderone's first ace came 65 years ago in 1939. His last one before Wednesday was sometime in the 1990s, on the same course's 17th hole.

It certainly takes skill to make an ace, much less eight of them, but it's hard not to wonder if some people are just plain lucky. Anderone seems to be -- not only with the aces, but three lottery wins in his life.


http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/golf-devil-ball-golf/103-year-old-man-records-his-eighth-ace--becomes-oldest-with-hole-in-one-012551146-golf.html

Alfred “Alfie” Date is 109 years old and he spends his days knitting sweaters for penguins. Actual, real-life little penguins who live off the coast of Australia and New Zealand.

It may sound crazy, but it’s the truth. Date, the oldest living man in Australia, has been an accomplished knitter for seven decades. He says he completed his first project, a sweater for his nephew, in about 1931.

Date had recently moved to an assisted living facility in New South Wales, when he got an unusual request from the staff.

"I think I’d been in here about 12 hours, might have been 13," Date tells 9News.com.au.

"The two [nurses] come in to me and say ‘We believe you can knit.’"

The nurses explained that the Phillip Island Penguin Foundation had put out a call for sweaters to help the animals.

Sweaters for penguins sound adorable, but seem farfetched. But in fact, they serve a practical purpose in rescuing the birds after oil spills.
“This is not a fashion statement!” the organization says on its website. “Knitted penguin jumpers play an important role in saving little penguins affected by oil pollution. A patch of oil the size of a thumb nail can kill a little penguin.”

After a spill in 2001, nearly all of the 438 affected penguins were saved.

Date took the request to heart.

"The girls who used to work for me, they’ll tell you I’m a sucker. I can’t say no," Date says.

Response to the request has been tremendous, largely due to the attention from the press, and the penguin rescue group is now politely asking knitters to lay off.

“Please note that we have plenty of penguin jumpers at this time donated by generous knitters across the globe,”  the group says. They suggest donating cash to support their work instead. Similar calls for mittens for koalas with burnt paws and knitted pouches for orphaned kangaroos have also resulted in an overflow of crafty donations.

Apparently knitters can’t resist a call to help.

Date is not the first knitter of a certain age to take up the cause. Merle Davenport, a 96-year-old great-grandmother in Ferntree Gully, Australia, made headlines last year for her penguin sweaters.

“I’ve got to have something to do with my hands,” Davenport told the Knox Leader. She said each jumper (Australian for “sweater”) took her seven to eight hours to make.

Even if the sweaters aren’t immediately put to use, they are having a positive effect on the knitters themselves. The craft has been used as a therapy to boost mental health, it relieves stress, and it boosts brainpower. One study found that crafting lowers your risk of developing mild cognitive impairment by as much as 50 percent and may lower your risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

https://www.yahoo.com/makers/109-year-old-spends-his-days-knitting-sweaters-for-110737180910.html