sciencentral.com — Some mice that age three times faster than normal are revealing to scientists why we grow old.How is it possible that of two middle-aged mice, one is already grey, balding and frail? This ScienCentral News video explains.
Oct 1, 2005 View in Crawl 4
5blocksfreeOct 1, 2005
There is an excellent documentary hosted by Alan Alda as part of the Scientific American: Frontiers series (I hope I got that right), where he investigates the impact of the food we eat on the aging process. One part that I remember was a controlled study done on two groups of mice - one group was fed a 'normal' diet, while the other, a calorie-restricted diet high in nutrients. The former group showed the typical signs of age, while the latter group, although being the same physical age, didn't show anywhere near the same degree of physical deterioration. This would never work in western culture, as people have become far too accustomed to the nutritional slop that's served at fast-food joints.
thxcertifiedOct 1, 2005
Very cool/
digitaltravOct 2, 2005
PS: I have no idea if the stories about the secret society are true but I am a sucker for controversy.
digitaltravOct 2, 2005
AWWW. Lame. I was hoping for a good conspiracy!
fragalotOct 2, 2005
we age because of time? eh?
swampthingOct 2, 2005
I think there is a clue when you look at the rapid aging progeria disease that we see in some children. I think it proves the aging process is not tied to time, and is actually something else. In those children, their bodies rapidly age and they end up dying of old age before 15 or so. So if the aging process can go faster, perhaps there is something to slow it down, or even reverse. More research into progeria victims is needed...
jumjumOct 2, 2005
Contrary to theoretical belief, in a 1500 square mile area, billions of people can live comfortably. America as an example is 60% rural and 40% urban: that's alot of land, but something that would require such drastic road & land ownership reform would never happen in this age anyway, probably in any country.
Closed AccountOct 2, 2005
>It is a scary thought to consider scientists being able to stop--or speed>up--the aging process. >>With the ability to stop the aging process, no one would grow old, few people>would die, and the world would quickly become overcrowded and probably die out.>>With the ability to speed up the aging process, society would face a moral>dilemma. What in the world could it be used for? >>The story is interesting in that it gets you thinking about the>possibilitiesFirst, humans 30000 years ago only lived to be... well less than 30. In the 1800s the life span of a human was about 40-45 years old. We long ago took charge of our evolution or at least started interferring with it. So heres the deal. We will change our genetics and other things to at least give us very very long lives. Any body 50 or under will probably get in on that. Ya it will cause over population. The laws of population state that when a species over runs its range its population will be reduced by famine, desease or violence. We long ago exceeded our range and these rules seem to apply. So the challenge is to get off the planet and extend our range.<a class="user" href="http://www.nas.nasa.gov/Services/Education/SpaceSettlement/index.html">http://www.nas.nasa.gov/Services/Education/SpaceSettlement/index.html</a>