It's Always More Complex Than You Think
It seems to be true that, wherever you are in the research process, human biochemistry and genetics is more complex than you think. It's good to keep reminding ourselves about this, since the present pace of research makes it easy to become optimistic (and thus complacent) about the future of health, medicine and longevity. Here, Betterhumans notes research that questions the form of the link between antioxidants and healthy lifespan: there may be additional layers in the biochemistry that researchers have not yet explored. This means that the time taken to develop therapies based on understanding these mechanisms just increased by an unknown amount.
Link: http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2004-02-23-3