I wish to comment on a particular type of articles posted in this
newsgroup.
Many statements like the following appear in these articles:
"a cell becomes cancerous because it can lead to ageing..."
"certain genes are turned off or turned on because the future
generation baby can be healthy..."
etc.
There is an element of the authors' personal beliefs in these
arguments related to cause-and-effect.
What happens at the molecular level in a cell cannot be attributed
to human desirability and convictions (that Mother Nature intended
it that way etc.!). We need to take an IMPERSONAL look at the ageing
problem. Please do not make arguments which seemingly imply that
there are Supernatural Reasons which is why we age, or, for that matter,
"Nature Found a better way to recycle by killing us and producing babies"
and so on. We need scientific information about the ageing process.
This scientific information is in terms of molecular mechanisms which
eventually lead to the morpidity of the macroscopic living system.
Why certain genes are turned on or off should be explained on molecular
biological reasons rather than that it is good for future etc.
In simple words, 'future cannot be made a REASON for the present'
while 'present can be EXPLAINED based on the past'.
S.Baranidharan
Lilly Hall of Life Sciences
Purdue University
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|This box is dedicated to the memory of those who spent their lifetimes|
| worrying about the age-old problem of the old-age problem. |
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