[Greg Anos]

Comments on the differences between the Astounding version of Methuselah's Children and the novel version.

I'm not going to spoiler this as the main difference is most interesting, and worthy of discussion.

Generally it's like the Lensman series, minor tweaks here and there all over the place. However, there is a major change in the ending sequence. The pulp version ends with a "gobblegook" version of anti-aging, but the novel version used a totally different concept.

That concept appeared to be another "gobblegook" answer - but it wan't. That was the strange thing. The new answer wasn't actually gobblegook - it was based on a research paper published less than a year before the re-write. The paper was the first parabiosis experiment. (It was difficult to do and because of that) it was not followed up on. By the late 1970's, it was not even mentioned in the molecular biology research. Reading it as a kid, I thought it was like FTL drives, simply a plot device, with no reality behind it.

It's now a major breakthough in aging research. Instead of using whole blood, a select fraction is used. So far it has only increased test animal lifespan by 15-20 percent but it rejuvenates the lab animals back into young animals. (Two different trial by two different groups, one with rats and one with mice.)

Interesting how Heinlein found and picked that research in the re-write.