Physicist Says Immortality Tantalizing Close But Cancer Uses Same Mechanism

What was said

"We have a time limit. We've also discovered telomerase, a chemical that stops the clock. If there's a clock in our body called the telomeres that tracks how long we're gonna live, and there's something called telomerase which stops the clock, then can we live forever? But the bad news was we found out that cancer also uses telomeres and telomerase to live forever."

Dr. Kaku explained that scientists have identified telomeres as the biological clock limiting human lifespan and telomerase as the enzyme that can stop that clock, bringing indefinite human lifespan within theoretical reach. However, the same mechanism that could grant humans immortality is exploited by cancer cells, creating a dangerous double-edged sword that researchers must solve before extending human life becomes safe.