The Easter Island megaliths are some of the world’s coolest, long-standing human creations. You’ve probably seen the famous row of 15 moai, or stone statues; but did you know that the island actually has 887 monolithic stone statues total? And with estimates of their development ranging from 400 to 1500 CE, they’ve certainly passed the test of time today.

It turns out that the soil surrounding these South Pacific Statues can help living creatures pass that test, too. In a new study conducted by the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, as part of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) Interventions Testing Program, “rapamycin,” or the Easter Island compound, was tested on middle aged laboratory mice—at about age 60 in human years. It turns out that the compound increased their life spans by 28 to 38%.

The Barshop Institute’s director, Dr. Arlan G. Richardson, Ph.D., who has been working on anti-aging research for over three decades, is amazed by the findings. “There have been many so-called ‘anti-aging’ interventions over those years that were never successful. I never thought we would find an anti-aging pill for people I my lifetime; however, rapamycin shows a great deal of promise just to do that.”

Rapamycin has already been used to combat fungus and prevent organ rejection during transplants, making it a beneficial medical find from the 1970s.

Now, it looks like it may be the closest thing we’ve got—aside from a good diet with plenty of exercise, right?—to a Fountain of Youth.

Director of the Aging Interventions Testing Center of San Antonio Randy Strong, Ph.D., says, “We believe this is the first convincing evidence that the aging process can be slowed and lifespan can be extended by a drug therapy starting at an advanced age.”

But do we need an anti-aging compound? Sure, everyone is afraid of death, but with an already overpopulated planet, a continuous rise in life expectancy as it is, and so many environmental issues caused by so many people right now, wouldn’t a discovery like this be more detrimental to the planet than helpful to it?

Then again, I’m sure there’s plenty of money to be made with such discoveries.

What do you think? Is it wasteful to be researching anti-aging drugs when there are so many other concerns for the scientific community to tackle today? Or is it worth the time and expense?