💬 Quoted: “On the surface it sounds completely insane, but I was surprised how good a case he could make for it.”

An experimental US government agency recently hired a leading scientist with a seemingly outlandish plan to help humanity cheat death and live forever.

Dr. Jean Hébert, who was tapped to lead a major new initiative at the US Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), is a proponent of the idea that humans may be able to cheat death by slowly replacing every part of our anatomy, including brain cells, with freshly cloned body tissue – essentially, a human version of the Ship of Theseus.

• According to Hébert, who most definitely watched Altered Carbon, if the replacement process is carried out in slow enough steps, the human brain will likely be able to adapt to the new body tissue, and eventually relocate its memories and self-identity – though other scientists aren’t convinced his plan could actually work.
• Hébert’s experimental project is reportedly slated to receive at least $110 million in funding from ARPA-H, which was established in 2022 under the Department of Health and Human Services to pursue “bold, urgent innovation” with transformative potential.

🏀 Stat of the Day: Opposing players tasked with guarding Olivier Rioux, an 18-year-old freshman center for the Florida men’s basketball team, this upcoming season will face a…tall order. Rioux’s official height is listed at 7 feet 9 inches – or two inches taller than any other player in US basketball history, college or NBA. Rioux, who’s six inches shy of becoming the world’s tallest person, is among the estimated 2,000-3,000 people in the world who stand 7 feet or taller.

🤔 Did You Know? A May 2024 study found that over the course of a pregnancy, creating and carrying a human baby takes an average of 49,753 additional dietary calories – or the equivalent of 199 full-size Snickers bars.

📰 Worth a Read: Can Plastic Waste Be Transformed Into Food for Humans? → (Undark Magazine)