An X Prize For Longevity Science?

History teaches us that research prizes are a great way to drive progress in science and its application. Competition is fundamental to human endeavor and achievement. In our neck of the woods, we can see that the Mprize for longevity science has gone a long way towards turning the aging research community away from its conservatism and reluctance to discuss extending healthy human longevity. More is always better, however. Via Cosmic Log I see that the X Prize Foundation is considering a prize for longevity research: "Even as the X Prize Foundation kicks off its $10 million competition for super-efficient automobiles, it's working on plenty more prizes to come. X Prize co-founder Peter Diamandis says he’s aiming for two new prizes every year, focusing on five fields. ... Diamandis is already deep into the strategic planning for the next X Prizes. ... We've refined our strategy, and we are planning X Prizes in five vertical fields that we've defined. ... We are looking at life science-related X Prizes, where the Archon X Prize for Genomics is the first. We're looking at areas such as cancer and human longevity."

Link: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/03/20/790970.aspx

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