Just look at the world in the last 100 years. We've made more advances in all fields of science than in the previous 2000.
Not terribly surprising - we have expanded in every field, be it transport, communications, food production, wildlife conservation etc etc. Most of this is down to becoming a global community and the rapid exchange of ideas, and advances in technology including telecommunications.
Take medicine - current opinion in medicine is that we know know enough about cloning body parts, genetics and the aging process that the first person who is going to live to be 500 years old has already been born, and the first immortal human will be born in the next 50 years.
Speaking as a geneticist, I think you will find this is a less than prevailing view in the scientific community. Given that your soure is cbs news rather than a peer reviewed scientific journal I am somewhat sceptical. We have only known the structure of DNA since the 1950's, we know very little about cloning whole embryos yet, let alone specific body parts. As to living to 500, your body is simply not built for that lifespan. In fact your body is biologically programmed to live until reproductive age and pass on its genome. Living until 80, 90, 100 years is the product of modern medicine and science rather than any ability the body has intrinsically. Immortality is just plain fantasy. The problem with living older is that the added years are at the end of your life, not where they would be useful. Who wants to go through 400 years as a pensioner? :roll: I am afraid these ideas are far closer to science fiction than science fact.
Steve.