From the myriad of attempts to regain one’s youth -- starting with the failed search of an elixir to Tuck Everlasting -- not one has succeeded. As the human population grows exponentially, the unreasonable ideas that linger amongst us fade naturally -- but the idea of an elixir or a fountain of youth still stays amongst us, uneasily becoming the oil mixed in our consistent pool of water. Not until we realize that the oil outside of us is the oil secreted inside of us we know that the thought of immortality exists within us -- not only because of our greed, but because that potential is always hidden inside us.

On each chromosome of a cell, telomeres were first discovered in 2009 by Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider, and Jack W. Szostak, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for their discovery. Telomeres are known as a human’s biological clock--as they decrease in size, a person’s death (due to aging) is closer. The discovery marked a revolution in the scientific industry: our thinking worked in conjunction with our biological clocks, scientists got a deeper understanding of human body mechanisms, the ability to reprogram (genetically engineer) these telomeres could bring back the almost extinct elixir, and the ideas of the discovery alone have sparked controversy. Thus, from the effects of a single discovery, our population had started to change the way it thinks -- instead of how can I live, the question became how can I live longer.

The mere, microscopic figure has its own, luminous face. It possesses a brain, stimulating millions of minds to start thinking. It possesses eyes, reorienting scientists’ vision on many diseases and molecular processes. It possess a mouth, being able to regenerate after being genetically engineered (just like the mouth can reposition itself to mouth so many words). It possesses a nose, just like each nostril contradicts each other, the sides of the controversy overlap beautifully. This, additionally, is what adds to the telomere’s global contribution -- simply the aspect that it can be connected to human features.

The brain, despite its equal importance to all other organs, runs a majority of our external and internal processes -- and is thus stereotypically considered the most important organ of the human body. The figurative brain of the telomere is therefore what will, and has run the morale and branching discoveries of this single discovery. Life can be a delicate issue for anyone -- regarding family members, friends, or even oneself. As the discovery of telomeres has played an important role in giving hopes to those who fear death, many people have raised questions, and perhaps created unreasonable fantasies. It is well said that death should not be feared, but accepted. Most, however, view acceptance as a compromise -- a compromise where one submits and resigns. Amongst the human population, the question has and will continue to be asked: When we can avoid compromise, why not? The building blocks of the molecular face are telomerases, the soul behind the correlation of telomeres and death. As we grow, our cells must divide to cope with our increasing size. Every time a cell divides, a group of telomerases break off from the telomere to aid the division process, decreasing the size of a telomere. The thought of the fact that with these telomeres, we will know when someone will die not only brings relief, but anxiety, and desperateness to know the new deadline for our goals. The stress of completing our goals in a given point of time increases adrenaline levels and blood pressure, giving phobia-like symptoms. Is the fear given to us by telomeres the fictional fear faced in Nineteen Eighty-Four, where we will soon end up feeling safe by the existence of the entity we were scared of?

Before the scientific perspective of life should dominate conditional reasoning, every aspect of it must be true. Living within the blindfold that simply correlation implies certainty, scientists have believed so many things about the human cell to be true. Only after the discovery of telomeres did they know there was a huge gap between reality and assumptions, despite the technology we have access to. The true understanding of science which telomeres give us is what, in turn, gives telomeres its eyes -- the eyes which know how to separate mirages from water, illusions from reality. Initially it was thought that it was necessary to have stem cells to be able to generate new organs in order to satisfy the dangerously long list of patients waiting for transplants. However, stem cells have the potential to regenerate advantageously because of telomerase activation, which stabilizes telomere length. Thus it is not only not necessary to in-vitro fertilize embryos for their stem cells, but a new organ can be generated from the patient itself. Additionally, there was an established thought of programmed cell death, called apoptosis. After the discovery of telomeres, this was proven true with the Hayflick Limit. With understandings of cell reproduction, further discoveries were made on cancer. Although telomeres wiped out the uncomfortable translucency of our window pane of knowledge, there is information yet to be discovered regarding the potency of this figure. With a single discovery, yet the million questions generated from it, scientists could relate telomeres to so much more than just our own potential immortality. Telomeres once again bring up the paradox -- discovered using prior knowledge, but disproving that knowledge itself -- showing that there is much more hidden within the molecular face than a clock.

Telomeres have answered many questions, but on top of that, have brought up an interesting question regarding the value of life. The ability to regenerate telomeres functions as a mouth, positioning itself to serve as long as it can. Cloning has been one of the top medical controversies for the past decade, but telomere regeneration proves to show an alternate method of cloning. With such information, it is possible to make even further medical advances in genetic engineering. Cloning is just one aspect of telomere regeneration. With infinite access to a telomere via telomerase activation, it is even possible to become immortal. Telomerase activation physically brings immortality from dreams to reality, but can one really bring the thought of immortality down to Earth, mentally? Seniors are getting desperate to spend more time with the world they have always lived in. TA-65, a capsule used to activate immortality in the human body, is already being sold throughout the world with its given consequences. Not only does this bring moral issues, but sentimental realizations regarding the human existence's search for an answer to life. Perhaps we have always wondered about death and its consequences because the clock within us sparks us to. Perhaps we have always dreamed about prolonging time because the telomeres within us long for it. Perhaps we have always contemplated our life beyond death because our subconscious knows there may never be death. Perhaps we have always feared death because we knew that soon we will never have the chance. Perhaps we have always searched for a fountain of youth because the substance we were looking for was within our reach.

The controversy between telomeres brings up one last question: Can the desperateness to live longer cause us to take risks, or will the fear of taking risks have us lose the opportunity of living longer? The only, and close to permanent, hurdle in our path to living forever is the risks behind it and the microscopic pores that result. Telomere elongation only results in the certainty that we will never die due to aging. However, the chance of getting exposed to diseases, and henceforth many other possibilities still exists. This is what raises the controversy -- we get cancer only because of the human body's unintentional activation of telomerase. The morality of selling capsules which are an open ticket to cancer is always questioned. Seniors say suffering "old age is a fate worse than death" -- if there was a way to avoid that, they would take it right away despite its risks (William and West par. 14). The next time another capsule is invented to prolong life, the lifetime of any senior would have passed. Which should be given more importance, quality or quantity? Our nostrils breathe in the same air. Both cancer and telomeres operate on the same basis. However, one nostril exhales more fluently as the other inhales more fluently. Conversely, cancer is fluent in rapid cell reproduction where telomerase activation is fluent in life elongation. If the answer to life brings us to the feet of death, then what is death? If the capabilities of a cell are infinite, yet it always stops finitely, then what is infinity? If cancer patients are immortal, yet their life has an end, then what is immortality?

To reiterate, telomeres have a global impact due to the figurative brain, eyes, mouth, and nose they possess -- the body parts that give them the causation of death. Little did Ponce de León, or the ancient Chinese know that the search for immortality lies not anywhere around us, but within us. Telomeres teach us that the search for an answer to avoid death brought us to death itself. The death of our mortal, wandering life. The death of the beautiful suspense that keeps us at the edge of our seat. The death of the immortal fear that wanders amongst us. The death of a purpose and necessity to achieve. And most of all, the death of the cycle that makes our world the regenerating telomere it is itself.