ИСТИНА

Anatoli Brouchkov, a scientist whose curiosity and thirst for knowledge drove him to go beyond the standard protocol of his experimentation by injecting himself with an ancient “Eternal Life” bacteria. In 2009, a 3.5-million-year-old bacteria strain called Bacillus F was discovered deep in the permafrost of Siberia’s Sakha Republic. Scientists later found that mice and fruit flies exposed to the bacteria seemed to get a boost to their immune systems, leading to longer lives and fertility even into old age. So, naturally, Anatoli Brouchkov, the head of the geocryology department at Moscow State University, decided to take it a step further. “After successful experiments on [the] mice and fruit flies, I thought it would be interesting to try the inactivated bacterial culture on himself. In effect, he’s making him a human guinea pig to see how what the newspaper calls “eternal life” bacteria protects against cell damage and may hold the key to longevity. “I would say, there exist [in the world] immortal bacteria, immortal beings,” he tells Medical Daily. “They cannot die—to more precise, they can protect themselves.” He acknowledges to the Times that this “wasn’t quite a scientific experiment,” but he was super-curious how it would affect his health.