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This sounds good, but it can't be right. There are animals that live centuries. Greenland sharks may live up to 500 years, for example. There are trees that liv

This sounds good, but it can't be right. There are animals that live centuries. Greenland sharks may live up to 500 years, for example. There are trees that live millenia.

viraptor 2y ago
Turns out they have lower mutation rate which helps them. Their chances are much lower, but still not zero. https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/sharks-cancer-secret-also-puts-them-at-risk-study https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/sharks-cancer-secret-al...
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
thfuran 2y ago
But they aren't human. We don't survive being dessicated and heavily irradiated like a tardigrade or regrow severed limbs like starfish, and we aren't as good at avoiding cancer as some other animals.
- cogman10 2y ago
  And some animals are worse. Dogs, for example, are most likely to die from cancer. They also get cataracts decades earlier than humans do.
- guerrilla 2y ago
  You're supporting my point. The reason we suffer from this is not solely probabilistic. There are many other factors.
kragen 2y ago
being warmblooded is a huge disadvantage for longevity
- AlphaCharlie 2y ago
  Can you expand on that subject? What are the traits of warm blooded species that lead to higher cancer rates?
  - pfdietz 2y ago
    Probably constant generation of reactive oxidizing chemicals from the higher metabolism needed to maintain body temperature.
  - kragen 2y ago
    not just higher cancer rates, but higher rates of all kinds of aging-related deaths the advantage of being warm-blooded is that your metabolism is more precise and much faster, but, as james dean quoted willard motley saying, 'live fast, die young' most of the causes of aging are unwanted chemical reactions; https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0092-8674%2813%2900645-4 https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0092-8674%2813%2900... is a highly-cited paper reviewing what we knew about the causes of aging 11 years ago. chemical reactions of all kinds follow the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrhenius_equation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrhenius_equation which makes them happen about 2–3 times faster per 10° temperature rise (being old is a more important risk factor for cancer than anything else i can think of, even smoking and radioactive fallout) small sharks around greenland, to take an extreme example, are at essentially the temperature of the seawater, about -1.8°. larger sharks could conceivably raise their internal body temperature, but greenland sharks swim very slowly to avoid this even when they are large. so their metabolism is about 16× slower than yours is—both healing and aging processes happen slower. their gestational period is about 8–18 years
    - guerrilla 2y ago
      Thank you. This is the kind of thing I was looking for. After posting, I also found out that plants are even further in the other direction because their strong cell walls prevent metasticization.
      - 2y ago

This sounds good, but it can't be right. There are animals that live centuries. Greenland sharks may live up to 500 years, for example. There are trees that live millenia.

viraptor 2y ago

Turns out they have lower mutation rate which helps them. Their chances are much lower, but still not zero. https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/sharks-cancer-secret-also-puts-them-at-risk-study https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/sharks-cancer-secret-al...

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

thfuran 2y ago

But they aren't human. We don't survive being dessicated and heavily irradiated like a tardigrade or regrow severed limbs like starfish, and we aren't as good at avoiding cancer as some other animals.

cogman10 2y ago
And some animals are worse. Dogs, for example, are most likely to die from cancer. They also get cataracts decades earlier than humans do.
guerrilla 2y ago
You're supporting my point. The reason we suffer from this is not solely probabilistic. There are many other factors.

kragen 2y ago

being warmblooded is a huge disadvantage for longevity

AlphaCharlie 2y ago
Can you expand on that subject? What are the traits of warm blooded species that lead to higher cancer rates?
- pfdietz 2y ago
  Probably constant generation of reactive oxidizing chemicals from the higher metabolism needed to maintain body temperature.
- kragen 2y ago
  not just higher cancer rates, but higher rates of all kinds of aging-related deaths the advantage of being warm-blooded is that your metabolism is more precise and much faster, but, as james dean quoted willard motley saying, 'live fast, die young' most of the causes of aging are unwanted chemical reactions; https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0092-8674%2813%2900645-4 https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0092-8674%2813%2900... is a highly-cited paper reviewing what we knew about the causes of aging 11 years ago. chemical reactions of all kinds follow the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrhenius_equation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrhenius_equation which makes them happen about 2–3 times faster per 10° temperature rise (being old is a more important risk factor for cancer than anything else i can think of, even smoking and radioactive fallout) small sharks around greenland, to take an extreme example, are at essentially the temperature of the seawater, about -1.8°. larger sharks could conceivably raise their internal body temperature, but greenland sharks swim very slowly to avoid this even when they are large. so their metabolism is about 16× slower than yours is—both healing and aging processes happen slower. their gestational period is about 8–18 years
  - guerrilla 2y ago
    Thank you. This is the kind of thing I was looking for. After posting, I also found out that plants are even further in the other direction because their strong cell walls prevent metasticization.
    - 2y ago