This is what Walt Disney was waiting on. Earlier today, my homie Ant was on Twitter talking about a group of scientists on CNN claiming to have sped up the aging process of mice only to slow it down. What’s this mean? Probably not a damn thing, but in the slim chance this does result in one of the greatest scientific findings in world history, these Harvard researchers may have just uncovered the “Fountain Of Youth.”

Toss the Rogaine and Viagra? Not just yet.

But Harvard scientists have found that some effects of aging, such as hair loss, infertility and decreased brain function, can be stopped. And not just stopped: the scientists’ research, published today in the journal Nature, showed that it’s possible even to reverse the signs of aging.

“Basically, what this study teaches us is that there’s a point of return in aging,” senior author Dr. Ronald A. DePinho, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told CBS News.

DePinho and his team looked at the protective caps of repetitive DNA, called telomeres, found at the ends of chromosomes. Each time cells divide, their telomeres shorten, causing cells to age. Researchers hoped that by amping up the gene that controls production of an enzyme called telomerase they could keep chromosomes from getting shorter, thereby reversing the signs of aging.

The mice were engineered to have low levels of telomerase. As a result, they suffered from the same sorts of health problems that affect 80-year-old humans. Think of them as gray, balding mice that can’t have kids and have memory problems.

The study showed that boosting telomerase levels triggered a “dramatic reversal in the signs of aging,” DePinho said. Brain function improved, and the mice regained their fertility and youthful-looking fur.

So does this mean we’ve found the key to immortality?

Aging Reversed In Mice: Have Scientists Found Key to Immortality? [CBS News]