Lifespan

Subtitle by hamonwheat88

My father is a well-known plastic surgeon in Indianapolis, so it was only natural that I go

into a field of science, but I chose a field that may change the future of the human species.

When I arrived at the University of Amsterdam, they thought I was too young to be the

Dr. Benjamin Land whose research papers were starting to be talked about even here.

Three score and ten

70 years says the bible... is the lifespan allotted to mankind.

Medical and technological progress have not substantially increased this lifespan,

But they have put it in the range of more and more people.

As more people live on into old age...

The study of aging demands increasing attention.

I was looking forward to this conference and to meeting my colleague Paul

Linden, but I spent most of it wondering why he was acting so strangely.

We believe we can discover why we grow old and how we can lengthen our lives.

Aging, most of us will agree, is a loss of information.

The old organism lacks the resources to preserve or renew itself.

Is this information lost in the fixed cell or in the cells that should

reproduce or is it lost because of random interference in cell processes?

Can the biological clock be slowed down or stopped?

Or turned back.

I believe that we're on the verge of finding out the answers to these questions and that the lives

of many people sitting here today will be happily prolonged by imminent discoveries in this field.

The next speaker should have been Paul Linden.

Instead we were treated to the academic wit of Professor Van Arte.

Thank you, Dr. Winston.

As Dean of this university, it is my honor to welcome you.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen.

My training was in biology, so we are at least cousins.

I don't mind you, Gerontologist, trying to lengthen my life.

As long as you don't ask me to give up my vices.

He's an old-fashioned biologist.

Yeah, I wonder how I'll get along with wonderboy Dr. Land.

Who's he?

You don't know about Ben Land.

Well he thinks that we're all going to be immortal?

You really believe that?

Yeah, I did a piece on him.

He's not the only one.

Did you see Dr. Paul Linden up on the stage?

He's been sprouting the same things here in Holland.

Who do you think Lang came over the team up with?

With Paul Linden, right?

Did you happen to see how Dr. Linden paled up on the stage?

No.

He was looking up at something and suddenly went gray.

I wonder why he hasn't made a statement?

Because he's either got something, or else he's on the verge.

He could be true.

Let's talk about a breakthrough.

You know what these guys mean by breakthrough?

Somebody's wiped myself if somebody else is by two months.

Perhaps Linden was having trouble verifying his results.

He certainly implied to me he was on the verge of something extraordinary.

Though you never could tell with Paul Linden,

his disdain for scientific jargon made his letters a little vague.

But I knew he had to be serious when he wrote to me

that very soon all of us might be living for as long as he said he like Amsterdam.

Growing old gracefully, renewing ourselves for hundreds of years.

Of course, I wrote back and told him I wouldn't

settle for anything less than immortality.

I didn't get off to a good start.

I forgot to extend my hotel reservation.

And another convention was about to move in.

I suddenly found myself out on the streets

before I'd had a chance to find a place to live.

It's always difficult here.

Holland's a small country.

The university as a housing system have you tried them?

No, I didn't know about that.

Dr. Winston, you gave a magnificent speech.

Excuse me, gentlemen.

Dr. Linden.

Get a bite?

I'm eating.

You can stay at my place.

From tomorrow.

I hate your impose on you.

It will be no trouble at all.

The woman downstairs owns the building.

She'll let you in and give you a key.

Well, if you're sure.

Just for a couple of days.

You can stay longer if you like.

So, what did you think of the conference?

Frankly, I wasn't paying too much attention.

There is something wrong.

No, no.

All right.

See you tomorrow.

Tomorrow I have a feeling I may be tighter.

Good luck.

I was almost angry that he wouldn't discuss his troubles with me.

And then I noticed his thinning hair.

Paul Linden was aging.

I know I'll never forget the sound of his shoes ringing on that marble floor.

In time, those shoes would come to haunt me.

Oh, the moment I saw you...

I knew you were the young man he spoke of.

Oh, really?

You've come to work with Dr. Linden, haven't you?

Yes, that's right.

He's probably gone over to the lab.

I didn't hear him this morning.

It was the last thing he said to me.

Tomorrow I may be tied up.

I must say it was rather bad taste to chose hanging.

He was a doctor.

Could have used pills.

The strange thing to me is that he would do it at all.

Because he wanted to make life well for others.

The two are not necessarily related, Dr. Land.

I suspect some people go into your field

because of a certain fascination with death.

The desire to beat the devil, so to speak.

But to death would usually win such contests, I'm afraid.

You say the devil defeated Paul Linden?

No, I'm speaking generally.

But Paul did have a few personal problems.

I see.

We're still going to tell you us now.

I expect you will to go back to America.

I've thought of that.

But my grant lets me do whatever I like for a year.

If it's alright with you, I'd like to stay on.

At least have a look at his papers.

Good.

That makes you our whole channel policy program now.

You'll need an assistant.

The men don't live in a hands act if you must be told.

I'll get you a boy from the biology department.

This is Pim Henke. He speaks excellent English.

That understands very little about your ontology, I'm afraid.

That's okay.

If you could help me go through his papers.

I hope it's okay with the technical term.

Your biology studies will help him.

But uncle, I thought.

I should have told you, finished my nephew.

Holland is a small country, Dr. Land.

You mentioned that Dr. Linden had personal problems.

Pim.

Would you leave, please.

A year ago, he divorced his wife and she took the children.

He had become involved with a much younger woman.

He was maintaining two households.

He was a constant financial difficulties.

He was consulted for us with pharmaceutical company, I believe,

to make some extra money.

But he had expensive tastes.

His funeral was a simple affair.

There were a few mourners.

His family, some people from the university.

Almost no friends.

No one talked about his motives.

Or that suicide note he forgot to write.

Dr. Bezel.

That man was his assistant for some time.

Cigarette?

No thanks.

Did you see her?

It was the girl.

Why don't you want to meet him, Anna?

I must.

It's very nice.

He was never the same after he met her.

By the way, have you found a place to live?

- Yes, I'm staying at Dr. Linden's place. - Really.

So now I was alone in a strange city,

trying to fall asleep in a dead man's bed,

under the beam ceiling where he hanged himself.

Whereas he was spending his first night in the ground.

Would he miss the table where he used to write?

Or the hum of that awful clock?

I had to be careful.

Or his death might become an obsession.

I fixed up this place for Paul, and he left his wife.

You knew him well, didn't you?

Are you sure you want to stay here?

How much is the rent, Lydia?

Oh, don't worry about that.

I only rent it to friends.

Well, I'll pack his things.

No, don't.

Leave everything just as it is.

Okay.

Dr. Linden's file seemed to be complete up until a year ago.

Then nothing but reports on some mice he was studying.

That strange, what kind of a study was it?

It says about 200 mice.

And does it say what he was feeding them?

I haven't had the chance to read it all.

That reminds me, there was a man here from the feeding department...

asking what you wanted to do about those mice.

- If you don't want to continue to project, he'll destroy them. - Destroy them?

Why?

I think he needs the space.

Ah, here he is.

This is Dr. Linden.

I told him about the feeling of mice.

Ah, Dr. Linden's mice.