How Silicon Valley's billionaires are trying to defy death

Behold tech's quest for immortality

Human Genome Project
(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

SEATED AT THE head of a table for 12 with a view of San Francisco's soaring skyline, Peter Thiel was deep in conversation with his guests, eclectic scientists whose research was considered radical, even heretical.

It was 2004, and Thiel had recently made a tidy fortune selling PayPal, which he co-founded, to eBay. He had spent what he wanted on himself — a posh penthouse suite at the Four Seasons Hotel and a silver Ferrari — and was now soliciting ideas to do good with his money.

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