Give me LIFE, my scientists! LIFE!

So says Kazakhstan’s aging leader, in one of the strangest science stories to ever grace the Guardian’s pages. The fun part is that, crazy as it sounds, his life-extension ultimatum just might work:

The 70-year-old leader stressed in a speech that a new scientific research institute in the capital Astana should study “rejuvenation of the organism,” as well as “the human genome, production of human tissue and creation of gene-based medicines”.

In an aside to students, Nazarbayev added: “As for the medicine of the future, people of my age are really hoping all of this will happen as soon as possible.”

Telomerase and astragalus might only be the beginning. Here’s hoping.