Forums: Methuselah Foundation

Tree from 2,000-year-old seed is doing well By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID , AP Science WriterJune 12, 2008 (AP) -- Just over three years old and about four-feet tall, Methuselah is growing well. "It's lovely," Dr. Sarah Sallon said of the date palm, whose parents may have provided food for the besieged Jews at Masada some 2,000 years ago. The little tree was sprouted in 2005 from a seed recovered from Masada, where rebelling Jews committed suicide rather than surrender to Roman attackers. Radiocarbon dating of seed fragments clinging to its root, as well as other seeds found with it that...

Study of long-lived Ashkenazi Jews may yield longevity genes galore A type of gene mutation long known to extend the lives of worms, flies and mice also turns up in long-lived humans. Researchers found that among Ashkenazi Jews, those who survived past age 95 were much more likely than their peers to possess one of two similar mutations in the gene for insulinlike growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R). The mutations seem to make cells less responsive than normal to insulinlike growth factor 1 (IGF1), a key growth hormone secreted by the liver. In past studies, IGF1 disruption increased the life...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The oldest planet ever detected is nearly 13 billion years old and more than twice the size of Jupiter, locked in orbit around a whirling pulsar and a white dwarf, astronomers said on Thursday. Compared with the relative youth and stability of our own celestial neighborhood, where Earth and the other planets orbit a single 5-billion-year-old star in a quiet neighborhood of the Milky Way, the ancient group that holds the oldest planet has had a boisterous past, scientists said at a NASA (news - web sites) briefing. The old planet is located near the heart of...

Melchizedek (also spelled Melchisedech) appears in the Book of Genesis (14:18-20). Abraham had defeated King Chedorlaomer and the other three allied kings, and then was met by Melchizedek, the Canaanite King of Salem and “a priest of God Most High.” (Interestingly, the word Melchizedek means, “My king is righteousness,” and Salem, “peace.” ) Melchizedek presented bread and wine to Abraham, and blessed him with these words: “blessed be Abram by God Most High, the creator of Heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who delivered your foes into your hand” (Genesis 14:19-20). Keep in mind that bread...