A new “death test” created by Aneta Stefanovska and Peter McClintock, physics professors from Lancaster University, claims to be able to tell people exactly how long they have to live.

It comes in the form of a wrist-watch styled device that releases a laser beam painlessesly into the skin, allowing it to examine the cells and examine the rate at which a person is aging.

I’m hoping we will build a database that will become larger and larger, so every person measured can be compared against it,” says Stefanovska. We will then be in a position to tell them the values [that] predict a certain number of years.”

The device is intended to bring awareness to healthy living. For example, someone living an unhealthy lifestyle would probably change if they were told they had a certain amount of years left to live due to their current condition. The laser-device is also useful in detecting cancer and other diseases.

“You might think that you are ageing too fast and do something about it,” says McClintock. “You might improve your lifestyle, have fewer deep-fried Mars bars and go out for a run.”

In tests of 220 people, the results show that some people age more faster or slower than others. Though it should be available to doctors within three years, it’s hard to picture it catching on to the mainstream. Even more, the physicians want to release a smaller, consumer-ready device to the masses.

Having created a bulky experimental device, the inventors are designing a smaller prototype that can be worn on the wrist,” reads Gulf News. “They say that with enough funding they could have the miniature version on the market within a year. Costing a few hundred pounds, it could be used by people at home to monitor their health, as well as in GP surgeries and hospitals.”

However, considering the invention’s effect, they added that “insurance and pension companies could also use the information to alter premiums and payouts.”