For Sale: Immortality For $35, You Can Buy A Piece Of Your Dna

Immortality is for sale. And it costs only $35.

Immortality is what microbiologist James Bicknell is marketing - just send him some of your cheek cells and he’ll send you back your DNA, preserved for posterity.

And in some future century, a loving descendant could use the biological information in the DNA to make a copy of you in theory, at least.

It’s all very simple. All you need is one of Bicknell’s DNA kits with two pieces of sterile gauze and a vial of liquid.

“You rub the gauze on the inside of your cheeks,” he explained. “You’ll rub off millions of cells. Insert the gauze in the liquid and mail it back to me.”

Bicknell, who has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Washington, then will extract the DNA, put it on some filter paper, put the paper into a tube and the tube into a small aluminum box - which he calls a crypt - engraved with the customer’s name.

“Then you set it on your desk or on the mantel,” he said.

He figures people save ashes of the dead, locks of hair and fingernail clippings. A box of DNA is something to pass on to the grandkids, after all.

Bicknell says he worked for years in Seattle area microbiology labs. He quit his job and started his immortality business, Third Millennium Research Inc., six months ago.

He sent brochures to wealthy older men in Miami and Los Angeles but didn’t get any takers.

Then, on Tuesday, The New York Times wrote him up, and his phone has been ringing off the hook. “I’ve gotten calls from all over the world,” he said.