Fact or Fiction? Ten Shocking Truths in The Cure
Eve Smith
You might assume that the cure for old age discovered by my protagonist Ruth is entirely fictional. While elements of the ReJuve injection are made up, most of the anti-ageing research in my book is inspired by scientific trials for therapies that have either happened, are currently in development, or on the market now.
And those aren’t the only events based on fact. Read on for some disconcerting truths in The Cure…
1. ‘Modern Day Vampires Source Black Market Blood To Stay Young’
This news article in The Cure was inspired by a real news story about a biotech startup in California that sold teenage blood plasma to elderly clients for thousands of dollars, claiming it would make them younger.
This claim was based on some grim research experiments that joined old and young rats together, so their blood circulation was shared. Incredibly, the old rats became younger. There’s no evidence that the human blood plasma venture worked, but a study published this year suggests there may be more to ‘young blood’ infusions than we thought…
2. A Nobel Prize-winning scientist had Ruth’s Hitler nightmare.
In The Cure, Ruth has a nightmare about a rejuvenated Hitler praising her for her discovery.
A scientist called Jennifer Doudna famously reported having a similar nightmare. She had developed a groundbreaking gene-editing methodology, and claimed the nightmare was motivated by her fears about the abuse of her discovery, in particular eugenics.
3. One company is already selling a version of my fictional rejuvenation therapy.
For just over a million dollars, you can purchase a procedure called ‘The Terminator’ (yes, really): a series of gene therapies that target critical ageing-related parts of your body. It’s not licensed, and it’s never been tested, but the first person will be trialling it this year.
4. ‘Is Erik Grundleger Unstoppable? The ‘Super’ scientist now wants to bring people back from the dead’
This news article in my book also has its basis in fact.
Cryopreservation is where deceased bodies are preserved with a sort of human antifreeze and stored at very low temperatures in tanks. And that’s where they stay until someone figures out how to revive them, and whatever condition they died of can be cured. Cryonics pioneers started operating decades ago in the USA, but a Berlin facility recently opened its doors, so now you can be frozen in Europe, too.
5. GigaCities are on the horizon
In my novel, the population growth resulting from extended lifespan has driven the emergence of ‘gigacities’: vast urban areas containing over one hundred million people. While this hasn’t happened yet, there has been a rise in megacities, which have over ten million residents. There are already thirty-five (including Tokyo, Lagos and Shanghai), with an additional fourteen projected by 2050.
6. The genetic disease that killed Ruth’s daughter is real.
In The Cure, Ruth stumbles across a cure for ageing, while researching the cruel disease that killed her young daughter, Lettie. Tragically, the condition I based this on exists.
Progeria is a rare terminal disease that afflicts children, prematurely ageing their bodies at eight to ten times the normal rate. Most die in their teens, often of heart disease, or strokes. There is no cure.
7. Fifty-two countries imposed new death sentences in 2023.
In my thriller, illegal ‘age traitors’ are sent to an expiration facility to be executed. The procedure I describe is exactly what prisoners on death row are subjected to, who are killed by lethal injection.
Amnesty International recorded 1,153 executions in 2023, marking the highest number of executions in almost a decade.
8. The Parcel Poisoner who targets the homeless in my book was based on a serial killer called the Teacup Poisoner.
Graham Young poisoned his victims using a cocktail of homemade poisons, including a tasteless, odourless heavy metal called thallium. A disturbed man with a troubled youth, he had a fascination with Hitler, serial killers, and the occult.
9. The stats about biodiversity loss in the book are already true.
A report from WWF’s Living Planet Index estimates global wildlife populations declined by 73 percent between 1970 and 2020.
They attribute this decline predominantly to human-driven habitat loss, pollution and climate change. Which makes you wonder, what will happen when the human population reaches 10 billion, which the UN predicts will occur by 2058? And that’s before we factor in the impacts of a cure for ageing.
10. The first genetically manipulated babies have been born.
The genetic modification of human babies is illegal in this country, and most nations have very strict protocols because of the dangers of unknown adverse effects. But in 2018, one Chinese scientist announced that he had edited the genes of twin baby girls as well as a third baby, before birth. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
Eve Smith is the author of The Cure.
