Re #1, you are mostly correct that only philanthropic organizations will accept grants that are explicitly high-risk. But the way it works in practice is that m

Re #1, you are mostly correct that only philanthropic organizations will accept grants that are explicitly high-risk. But the way it works in practice is that most investigators write a NIH grant with conservative aims, then use the money however they want, including projects they see as high-risk, high-reward. Re #2, from our previous conversations I know that you and I would both like to see increased funding for aging research. Still, you must agree that there are many ways to treat heart disease, cancer, etc, without addressing the aging connection. To give a simplistic example: the heart is a pump, and you can fix it either by identifying and preventing age-related damage, or simply by repairing or replacing the heart itself, e.g. with an artificial heart.