3 ms·

Aging, Evolution and the "developmental drift"

12 points by mariorz 18y ago

stcredzero 18y ago
What about us isn't an accident of evolution?
- geuis 18y ago
  The story is essentially saying that "aging" might not be caused by incremental damage to cellular systems as we age, but is instead caused by systems that work properly when we are young but become unbalanced as we age. As examples, the author refers to some species of tortoises and whales which can live hundreds of years. All animal life on earth utilizes the same basic cellular machinery to function, so things like free radicals and environmental stressors should effect all. However, their preliminary experiments don't support that idea.
  - stcredzero 18y ago
    I was commenting on the headline, not the article
    - mariorz 18y ago
      edited to something less linkbaitish.
biohacker42 18y ago
Crappy article, probably not HN worthy. Besides, aging aka anti-cancer mechanisms, are often very much designed to work that way. Working on those mechanisms could increase longevity, however it will not cure aging. We only have two copies of our DNA, and if you live long enough and cure every cancer, you could* still* end up with a left arm that genetically drifts from your right leg. And they both drift from your immune system. Deinococcus radiodurans has 4 copies of its genome, but it's only a single cell. We'd need something like that but with a central place that decides what's you and what isn't you. Think of it as RAID for your genome somewhere deep inside your chest. But we are nowhere near anything like that. So I wish the best of luck to Ray Kurtzweil and the rest of us, but I am not at all optimistic about the singularity.
- mariorz 18y ago
  >Crappy article, probably not HN worthy. Sorry. I found it quite interesting. BTW, about the singularity, I do not think it means what you think it means.
sungam 18y ago
This Cell paper was discussed previously on HN. I commented in detail on the paper in that thread:- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=256355 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=256355

12 points by mariorz 18y ago

stcredzero 18y ago

What about us isn't an accident of evolution?

geuis 18y ago
The story is essentially saying that "aging" might not be caused by incremental damage to cellular systems as we age, but is instead caused by systems that work properly when we are young but become unbalanced as we age. As examples, the author refers to some species of tortoises and whales which can live hundreds of years. All animal life on earth utilizes the same basic cellular machinery to function, so things like free radicals and environmental stressors should effect all. However, their preliminary experiments don't support that idea.
- stcredzero 18y ago
  I was commenting on the headline, not the article
  - mariorz 18y ago
    edited to something less linkbaitish.

biohacker42 18y ago

Crappy article, probably not HN worthy. Besides, aging aka anti-cancer mechanisms, are often very much designed to work that way. Working on those mechanisms could increase longevity, however it will not cure aging. We only have two copies of our DNA, and if you live long enough and cure every cancer, you could* still* end up with a left arm that genetically drifts from your right leg. And they both drift from your immune system. Deinococcus radiodurans has 4 copies of its genome, but it's only a single cell. We'd need something like that but with a central place that decides what's you and what isn't you. Think of it as RAID for your genome somewhere deep inside your chest. But we are nowhere near anything like that. So I wish the best of luck to Ray Kurtzweil and the rest of us, but I am not at all optimistic about the singularity.

mariorz 18y ago
>Crappy article, probably not HN worthy. Sorry. I found it quite interesting. BTW, about the singularity, I do not think it means what you think it means.

sungam 18y ago

This Cell paper was discussed previously on HN. I commented in detail on the paper in that thread:- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=256355 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=256355