Ok heres an argument as to why the aging phenomena can not be slowed to
any extensive degree.
If a gene had occured in any multicelled organism which coded for
eternal youth and eternal reproductive status it would quickly
proliferate through out life in the same way that genes coding for sexual
reproduction have proliferated.
However as individual cells age they become worn out and cease to
function as well as younger cells. Thus the organism as a whole ages.
What nature has not evolved is an organism that keeps replacing all the
older cells with new ones. However what nature has been able to do is to
ensure that old, worn out organisms die after reproducing and raising
offspring, by means of a built in stopclock, so as not to cause specific
competition with offspring that are potentially capable of more
reproduction. To put it another way genes coding for death have occured
and proliferated.
My argument therefor is, if you jam this stopclock the organism will
still get old and die. Ok it may live a little longer but immortality is
totally out of the question. Remember that if evolution was unable to
find a way to make immortal organisms which can reproduce forever what
chance do we stand?
Chris Swainson (genetics undergraduate)
