The media reaction to the revitalization of aged mice by a human protein (see Nature http://doi.org/b7gd; 2017, and J. M. Castellano et al. Nature 544, 488–492; 2017) echoes the enthusiasm that greeted rejuvenation techniques proposed almost a century ago by the Austrian endocrinology pioneer Eugen Steinach.

Following his experiments on rats and guinea pigs, Steinach's surgical interventions in humans included unilateral vasectomy and vasoligation (E. Steinach Rejuvenation through the Experimental Revitalization of the Aging Puberty Gland; Springer, 1920). The procedure was eagerly taken up in 1923 by neurologist Sigmund Freud and in 1934 by the Irish poet W. B. Yeats. Although the operation had its critics (see, for example, M. Fishbein The Medical Follies; Boni & Liveright, 1925), Steinach was nominated at least 11 times for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine between 1921 and 1938. He never received the prize.