IUBio

longevity & puberty: opinions sought

Julian Assange proff at iq.org
Wed Feb 21 19:09:52 EST 2001


jliss at speakeasy.org (Jeff Liss) writes:

> I am a non-scientist writing a book and would like to hear some basic
> opinions about the possibility of genetically extended life.  If a way
> could be found to retard the decay of telomeres (these are the ends of

Telomeres are not a disease; they're a tool evolved to meassure the
number of divisions a cell has gone through. This is useful in
stopping unctrolled cell division, i.e cancer.  Telomeres do not
`decay' any more than any clock does when carrying out its correct
function.

After prime adult hood, cancer rates rise exponentially with age. 

If increasing longevity was as simple as not shortening telomeres,
don't you think it would have selected for already? Where it has
control, evolution is very, very smart.

--
 Julian Assange        |If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people
                       |together to collect wood or assign them tasks and
 proff at iq.org          |work, but rather teach them to long for the endless
 proff at gnu.ai.mit.edu  |immensity of the sea. -- Antoine de Saint Exupery







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