We're Not Getting Any Younger

Oak Ridge museum provides peek into future as life expectancies extend, population ages

Arlene Mamer is staring into a black-and-white monitor, a mirror image of her face projected back at her.

She spins an arcade-style cursor ball, moving an arrow on the screen to points on her face: first the left corner of her eye, then the right corner of her eye, then the left corner of her mouth and so on, clicking a corresponding button at each spot.

In a matter of moments, the machine reveals what Mamer, a spry 72-year-old, might look like at 85.

“I’ve got to pay attention to my right eye,” says Mamer jokingly after viewing the results. “That’s going to age quick.”

Mamer is one of a handful of senior citizens, kids and parents touring the Amazing Feats of Aging exhibit at the American Museum of Science & Energy in Oak Ridge through Jan. 19, 2009. Although getting old is rarely a topic discussed with glee, the carnival-themed interactive exhibit has museum visitors “oohing” and “ahhing” at the various displays that educate participants of all ages about how and why the human body changes as the years go by.

Vicki Coats, manager of exhibit research and development at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry that’s touring the exhibit, says after surveying visitors at OMSI there was no debate on what the topic for a new exhibit should be.

“We found that elders wanted to know more about what they were already experiencing, middle-aged people wanted to know more because they were just beginning to experience aging and while kids aren’t worried as much about it, they’re interested because they want to get old so they can drive,” says Coats, who received funding from the Science Education Partnership Award given by the National Institutes of Health and started working with the Center for Healthy Aging at the Oregon Health & Science University nearly a decade ago to advance the project.

Groundbreaking research on issues from cloning to Alzheimer’s continues to answer age-old mysteries about the body, enabling doctors to fight disease and the aging process with more success — which, in turn, keeps the heart ticking longer than it used to.

Based on a 2006 report from the Federal Interagency Forum of Aging-Related Statistics, life expectancy after age 65 has extended 18.4 years, an increase of 5.6 years since 1940. Museum visitors watch as ping-pong balls rise through plastic inner tubes to reveal the average life expectancy for males is now 74.4 years and 80.1 years for females.

And by 2030, the Administration on Aging predicts the population of 65-plus will more than double to 71.5 million. In Tennessee alone, the population aged 85 and older rose 39 percent from 1990 to 2000, according to numbers from the state’s Commission on Aging and Disability.

“People are obviously living longer, and there are a lot of fears about aging,” Coats says. “But we didn’t want to just focus on disease and what could go wrong. We wanted to focus on what can go right.”

Besides the aging machine, the exhibit has an electronic matching game that measures reaction time, an MRI scan that looks at the differences between an 87-year-old brain and a 27-year-old brain and spring-like cords that simulate the before and after effects of collagen cross-linking, a process that is the difference between young “springy” skin and older “stretchy” skin.

“That’s why my eyes are so baggy,” says Mamer as she tugs on the string. “But I made a perfect score on the matching game, so that’s good.”

Mamer can take solace in the fact a 60-year-old brain contains four times the information of a 20-year-old brain. It’s interesting tidbits like these that Coats and her team learned as they compiled material for the exhibit.

“I always thought humans had the longest life expectancy of any mammal, but it’s actually a species of whale,” she says.

Amazing Feats of Aging also includes elements on the aging of animals, research Coats says has contributed to human health in the medical field.

“It really appealed to children,” she says of displays that show which animal has the longest life span, which animals spend time with their elders and which gender of a particular animal has a longer life span. “But a lot we’ve learned about our aging we’ve learned from animals, and we felt like it helped tell a bigger story.”

Despite the light-hearted atmosphere, there are serious overtones. Eight different screens give cautionary tales about the risks of an unhealthy lifestyle, encouraging viewers to avoid drinking and smoking, and promoting healthy eating, exercise, protection from the sun and flossing your teeth. They may be simple lessons, but Coats says children (and even adults) still need to be reminded.

In 1850, the top five leading causes of death in the United States were tuberculosis, dysentery, cholera, malaria and typhoid fever. One hundred and fifty years later, heart disease, cancer, stroke, lung disease and accidents are the leading causes of death.

The exhibit will also feature a 12-part series of speakers every Tuesday at 10 a.m. at no cost to those 60 and older. On Sept. 23 Clark Denton, a local MetLife registered investment adviser, was on hand to “paint your financial picture for long-term care” in the museum’s auditorium.

He spoke about long-term care insurance and how senior citizens can afford home health care, a growing discussion that prompted Gov. Phil Bredesen to launch an awareness campaign on the topic in 2007 followed by 2008 legislation in the form of the Long Term Care Community Choices Act.

Denton’s discussion was the first in the series. Other lectures will cover a “Virtual Dementia Tour,” “Senior Nutrition” and “Maintain Your Brain.” (A full schedule can be found online at www.amse.org.)