5 ms·

It makes me wonder, is it possible to determine the age of a living person with any accuracy by some kind of physical measurement or biological test? It seems

It makes me wonder, is it possible to determine the age of a living person with any accuracy by some kind of physical measurement or biological test? It seems that birth records and appearance are all we got to go on?

snikeris 7y ago
Telomere length is one such measurement.
- dogma1138 7y ago
  No it’s not because people are born with different telomere lengths and telomeres do not shorten at the same rate or even at a predictable rate through your lifetime.
- pergadad 7y ago
  Influenced by environmental factors, genetics and lifestyle. It can tell you how soon you'll die but not how old you are.
- has2k1 7y ago
  I thought of telomere length too, but given that the person is an outlier in age and they are healthy would it still be as accurate a measure? I think the biological aspect that is the proxy for age should not affect the well-being of the person.
- kazinator 7y ago
  Unless that individual's telomeres behave atypically, in direct relation to their longevity?
  - dogma1138 7y ago
    There is no typical behavior for telomeres. Even in humans they can lengthen under certain circumstances. They do overall shorten with age but without knowing what was your telomere basepair length at birth for a given tissue (as not only length varies between individuals it varies between different types of cells and between individual chromosomes) and tracking your telomeres throughout your life you can’t get any informative data for a given individual out of it.
markrages 7y ago
Take a core sample and count the rings.
3JPLW 7y ago
Looks like it's possible to do radiocarbon dating on tooth enamel. It's easiest (and most accurate) if you rely upon the byproducts of the nuclear era, but I'd guess you could also do traditional radiometric dating prior to that pulse. This paper kinda sucks, but it's what I found in 30 seconds: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2957015/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2957015/

snikeris 7y ago

Telomere length is one such measurement.

dogma1138 7y ago
No it’s not because people are born with different telomere lengths and telomeres do not shorten at the same rate or even at a predictable rate through your lifetime.
pergadad 7y ago
Influenced by environmental factors, genetics and lifestyle. It can tell you how soon you'll die but not how old you are.
has2k1 7y ago
I thought of telomere length too, but given that the person is an outlier in age and they are healthy would it still be as accurate a measure? I think the biological aspect that is the proxy for age should not affect the well-being of the person.
kazinator 7y ago
Unless that individual's telomeres behave atypically, in direct relation to their longevity?
- dogma1138 7y ago
  There is no typical behavior for telomeres. Even in humans they can lengthen under certain circumstances. They do overall shorten with age but without knowing what was your telomere basepair length at birth for a given tissue (as not only length varies between individuals it varies between different types of cells and between individual chromosomes) and tracking your telomeres throughout your life you can’t get any informative data for a given individual out of it.

markrages 7y ago

Take a core sample and count the rings.

3JPLW 7y ago

Looks like it's possible to do radiocarbon dating on tooth enamel. It's easiest (and most accurate) if you rely upon the byproducts of the nuclear era, but I'd guess you could also do traditional radiometric dating prior to that pulse. This paper kinda sucks, but it's what I found in 30 seconds: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2957015/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2957015/