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124 Comments
- harrisbradley, on 06/15/2009, -4/+25Doctors Smith and Wesson beg to differ
- iotadeltaphi, on 06/15/2009, -3/+21I disagree with that statement. Cancer cells are cells just like any other. They just lack some functions for proper apoptotic conditions given the regular lifecycle of cells in-vivo. Unless, of course, you can make them eat themselves.... http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcg ...
- theghoul, on 06/15/2009, -0/+17Man, life in prison would suck.
- archimago42, on 06/15/2009, -1/+16Would be cool if age was not a huge factor but you were still "mortal" in every other sense. Then we could live to do whatever but still have the option to die if we so chose and life would still be interesting because you certainly wouldn't be invulnerable to injury. Seems like an interesting way to populate space.
- AlienMushroom, on 06/15/2009, -1/+15The highways will soon be filled with 20MPH vehicles.
- Countess666, on 06/15/2009, -0/+12the point of this research is that it stops your body from becoming old as it can continually repair itself.
basically you'll remain at your peak without degradation.
so people wont have to retire any more, and can work and don't need anywhere near the same amount of healthcare.
but of course you could retired for a decade or 2 after 50 years or working and afterwards find a new job, maybe in a completely different sector.
as long as birthrates are cut down (and that would happen almost as a consequence of this), immortality saves money) - HaSatan, on 06/15/2009, -1/+13From the dawn of time we came; moving silently down through the centuries, living many secret lives, struggling to reach the time of the Gathering; when the few who remain will battle to the last. No one has ever known we were among you... until now.
- Kakemonstere, on 06/15/2009, -0/+11And here you are, on digg.
- cal3366, on 06/15/2009, -0/+10Yes but one of the main reasons for somatic cell death is due to teleomere shortening due to a lack of function in the telomerase enyzme. Without this enzyme, the chromosomes will eventually be shortened to far and cause cell death or apoptosis. This is also known as Hayflicks limit. Cancer cells have "evolved" through mutations in many different signaling pathways and enzymatic funtions, many of them including telomerase. This by passes the apoptosis that is caused due to chromosomal shortening in somatic cells because these cells can continuously lengthen their chromosomes. Another theory that is postulated is that all cancer begins with germ cells that have mutated and contain active telomerase. Therefore these cells can continually replicate with no "fear" of chromosomal shortening. Also these cancerous germ cells are said to be the main contributing factor to the replenishing of cancer cells. Researchers believe that if these cells are not killed during radiation and chemotherapy--that they will not only grow, but they are then resistant to the drug--causing a large mass of drug resistant cancer cells.
There are plenty of articles on NCBI about this.
Also--canabilistic cells are shown not only in cancer--but in bacteria. - Mookeh, on 06/15/2009, -0/+9HEEEEEERE WE AAAARE
- Memnochxx, on 06/15/2009, -2/+10Why would all of your immortal loved ones die?
- iamnos, on 06/15/2009, -0/+7Born to be kings
- Colecoman1982, on 06/15/2009, -0/+7We're the princes of the universe...
- inactive, on 06/15/2009, -0/+7i hope you're ***** joking. you mention twilight again i'm gonna smack you in the face with a salami.
- archimago42, on 06/15/2009, -0/+6Coincidence. I don't want you to either.
- anthropodeus, on 06/15/2009, -0/+6@KibblesnBitts
don't cross the streams - inactive, on 06/15/2009, -3/+9pfft - only mortals need that *****..
- damnshoes, on 06/15/2009, -3/+9I want to live forever...I got so many things i want to try.
- Countess666, on 06/15/2009, -0/+5you dont get old. that's the whole point.
with continual cell division you have continual body repair. you never go over 24-30.
and in theory it could work retroactively, making your younger.. literally! - Countess666, on 06/15/2009, -1/+6as healthcare got better birthrates went down dramatically, as can be seen in American Europe and Japan.
they are still very high in Africa because parents need to make sure there are enough people to take care of them when they get old.
that goes away when they don't get old. the NEED for children goes away, what remains is only the wish.
and when everybody lives long, everybody has a stake in keeping the planet liveable. renewable and recycling will probably get a lot of extra attention, specially from older people who before just couldn't care less. - inactive, on 06/15/2009, -0/+4I need to work on my reading comprehension.
- MusicMagi, on 06/15/2009, -0/+4yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee hawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
- whiledo, on 06/15/2009, -4/+8Not a problem. Just make sure you die quickly cheaply. Us immortals don't want to pay for your slow agonizing and most importantly costly demise.
- MWeather, on 06/15/2009, -2/+6Then kill yourself when you get bored.
- UrineEngineer, on 06/15/2009, -0/+4No.
- DDION, on 06/15/2009, -1/+5Well suddenly the expression; "There can be only one!" is nothing more than simple insecurity...
- inactive, on 06/15/2009, -1/+5did you slam your hand in a drawer immediately afterwards for allowing such a retarded thought?
- iotadeltaphi, on 06/15/2009, -0/+4Given that this is still a research paper, I'm interested to see if any explicitly-targeted autophagy mechanisms for tumor treatments come out of this research. It's been far too long since I've had my nose in my microbiology texts, and articles like this are exciting to read :)
- squ1d, on 06/15/2009, -0/+4Even if you're biologically immortal, you can always die by jumping in front of a train.
- Shwaavay, on 06/15/2009, -0/+3Or conversely, if you were a scientist who creates an unstoppable plague, would you release that into the world?
- Mawds, on 06/15/2009, -0/+3Here we belong, fighting to survive
- woahwoahwoah, on 06/15/2009, -1/+4This is quite an intriguing development. However, it does need more research into the matter.
- Shdwdrgn, on 06/16/2009, -0/+3It would seem that the odds would play out for such a mutation, and there is every chance that it has already happened, perhaps many times. The real question is, would we know if it happened? I'm not talking about the simple "I'm immortal but I'll never tell anyone." What I mean is that and immortality gene would only prevent you from dying of old age. The odds are that anyone born with such a mutation would probably have lived in a time or place of hardships, exposing them to such common forms of death as disease, wars, or even just bad luck. How many people die from some accident like falling or having something fall on them? Sure many of us can avoid these things for 60-80 years, but can you continue to avoid them for 600-800 years?
Having an immortality gene does not automatically mean you'll live forever. Still, I think you're right - there *should* be at least one living proof somewhere that such a gene can exist. - anthropodeus, on 06/15/2009, -0/+3and hopefully they'll have to cancel all future episodes of Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers.
- squ1d, on 06/15/2009, -0/+3The biggest problem in society today is social security.
Give everyone immortality and Voila! We would have no more social security problems, more workers, more tax income, and more money to pay for immortality treatments. It is the logical thing to do.
And if it is more expensive than paying for social security, China will find a way to do it cheaper. - WhiskeyLemur, on 06/30/2009, -0/+2Nah, we're coming up on our 9th anniversary and still doing fine. But - come on, no one expects to say the same of their 900th, so I'd assume that marriage would be retooled to a *timed* contract instead of an indefinite one.
- illspaz, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2"I Just Discovered These Gene Mutations," Says 750 Year Old Scientist
- moskrin, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2Now's the time to buy into a Country Kitchen Buffet franchise...
- NaturalCauzes, on 06/15/2009, -3/+5See, there's on problem with this: There can only be one.
- Countess666, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2ya just think how they WONT be doing that once their body's start becoming younger as the body regains the ability to repair itself again. then they start working again and paying taxes and health insurance again.
- happyimbecile, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2GET OUT. NOW!!!
- Ashur420, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2guess im a mortal then...where do i volunteer for this *****? I have no problem with scientists injecting me with a man-made virus designed to replace my genetic code with mutant immortality genes.
- KibblesnBitts, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2What if both are released at the same time?
- anthropodeus, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2you try death every night when you go to sleep. you aren't guaranteed to wake up, you know.
- inactive, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2So you are saying it would take 2 lifetimes to lose your virginity?
- damnshoes, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2damn kids... :*(
- joe7845, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2The worm population must be overjoyed.
- cal3366, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2Did you forget about the rate of mutation of DNA polymerase?
The mutation rate is 10^-4 to 10^-6 and granted there are other mechanisms to correct this, but they don't always work. This causes cell death when the cell recognizes or in theory can cause cancer. So you really want your cells to be immortal.
And it is called a telomere--and telomerase is the enzyme that keeps them at the correct length. And it is only present in germ cell lines, not somatic cells. - ajsmth, on 06/15/2009, -1/+3But can it play Crysis?
- RedHerringHack, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2Short Answer? Yes.
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