The South Asian Aging Paradox

​​For millennia, humans have dreamed of turning back time. Ancient texts tell of mystical waters that could restore youth: a pond that transformed an aging Hindu sage into his younger, more beautiful self; a “river of paradise” that Alexander the Great pursued to the edges of his empire; healing waters the Taino sought somewhere north of Cuba; and a legendary fountain that drew Ponce de León to Florida’s shores. 

Though it’s unclear whether those who sought these “cures” ever found them, researchers Raghav Sehgal and Albert Higgins-Chen might have some answers. In a laboratory at Yale University, the duo have been poring over what might be the most comprehensive atlas of human aging ever assembled. Their work, published recently, doesn’t track wrinkles or grey hairs, but rather invisible markers buried within our DNA that might hold the key to understanding — and potentially slowing — aging itself.