Have you noticed some interesting similarities between real-life human cells and the concept of midi-chlorians? Human cells die when Telomere tail in the end of DNA string becomes too short (cancer cells have the ability to keep their Telomere tail intact, that is why cancer cells are sometimes called "immortal"). Perhaps the midi-chlorians can be thought of being something similar than telomere tails (even though I know midi-chlorians were described as "micro-organisms"), something that is determining the lifespan of an individual. I wonder if Telomeres served as some kind of inspiration for Lucas when he came up with midi-chlorians... :)

I just read about researchers (I think they were Harvard-based) who have been able to reverse the aging process in mice (or was it rats) by activating Telomerase enzyme that prevents Telomere tail from shortening... So exciting! (even though I HATE animal experiments... But the article stated this was not painful for the rats, I hope that is true...!) Just imagine all the things that can (and will!) happen during our lifetime, say within next 50-80 years or so :)