Most scientists will get serious media exposure about twice in their entire career. And they'll get that because they've actually done an experiment that was interesting.

My approach is to start from the straightforward principle that our body is a machine. A very complicated machine, but none the less a machine, and it can be subjected to maintenance and repair in the same way as a simple machine, like a car.

Some things tend not to work so well for science - things that rely on substantial written contributions by key experts are a case in point - but even there I tend to keep an open mind, because it may just be a case of finding the right formula.

Theres nothing wrong with making the best of ones declining years, but what does annoy me is the fatalism. Now that were seriously in range of finding therapies that actually work against ageing, this apathy, of course, becomes an enormous part of the problem.

Wikipedia was a big help for science, especially science communication, and it shows no sign of diminishing in importance.

I don't work on longevity, I work on keeping people healthy.

I'm the chief science officer of a foundation that works on the application of regenerative medicine to the problem of aging.