Who wants to live for ever? Only billionaires like Jeff Bezos

No wonder the super-rich are funding anti-ageing research. Getting older must look lovely when you can afford your own climate-controlled island

The anti-ageing industry is hotting up. Not the one advertising me snail goo and sheep placenta facials (the algorithms can't accept that I barely moisturise); the one exploring how elastic the limits of life are. A generic diabetes drug, metformin, apparently shows potential to slow ageing (researchers are hoping to secure funding for a large-scale trial). A longevity diet" could hack cell ageing, but you'd better like your proteins pesco-vegetarian-derived" and your fats mostly from plant-based and pro-longevity sources". There's a definite buzz, but it's all in the early stages - as one researcher put it: It's a great time to be a rich mouse."

Rich - that's key. We relish tales of absurd billionaire biohacks - dodgy supplements, cryochambers and fasts so long I'd eat my own arm - as evidence that all their money can't buy them eternal life. But now we might have to be grateful for their mad hubris: billionaire-funded private sector startups are apparently filling the gaps in longevity science, funding anti-ageing research too speculative for big pharma and too expensive for academia and government, with Jeff Bezos, Larry Page and Sergey Brin all getting involved.