Scientists Retract Controversial Longevity Study, Blaming Equipment, But Argue They Were Still Right
Longevity A 100th birthday celebration in Brazil. Santa Rosa OldSkool via Flickr Remember last year's death-predicting longevity-gene study, estimating who is likely to live to 100 and who will not be so lucky? Well, the authors of the study have retracted their paper. But there's a catch: They claim they were still right. A bit of background: Last February, scientists at Boston University said they could predict with 77 percent accuracy whether someone was genetically predisposed to living a long life. The authors examined the genomes of 800 centenarians and determined there was a genetic signature of about 150 variations that, when present, could be used to predict longevity. But soon after the study was published, other scientists cried foul, pointing to a piece of lab equipment the scientists used that has been known to provide false positives. The quirk in the lab equipment happened to be related to the two most important...