More at http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/0...ing-cells.html

__________________
-The Wolf
http://www.ryanmercer.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/ryanmercer317
http://www.pleasegodhelpme.org

Is that good news or what ? Can it stop the skin cells from aging too , so that I will not worry of the wrinkles when I get old ?

And can we get the opposite if we want?
I'm tired of getting carded for milk.

Neat!
I'm cautiously optimistic with that one.

__________________
Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.

"Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you."

Like we aren't overpopulated enough now... like we need Lazarus Longs running around.

__________________
-The Wolf
http://www.ryanmercer.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/ryanmercer317
http://www.pleasegodhelpme.org

It is interesting, but for me this does not raise any immortality bells.
People will still find ways of removing themselves from the gene pool.

__________________
This whole internet thing is probably not a passing fad.-Ronald Brak
While speech might be free, consequences cost.-Doodler

This only addresses one aspect of aging, the buildup of waste products in cells. Fixing this would probably extend life a bit, but not make you immortal. The important thing is that it might dramatically improve quality of life for older people.

__________________
Do try not to take me too seriously.

Doesn't stop the telomere clock though.

__________________
‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Exactly, and it's the REAL limiting factor

__________________
-The Wolf
http://www.ryanmercer.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/ryanmercer317
http://www.pleasegodhelpme.org

Shucks--no chance for me to see Tanhauser gate then...

You mean there's something behind all the liver detox efforts along fringe lines?

Hmmm...

I found the following very interesting:

Diet? Really?

Hmmm...

OK, suppose a human or other animal were to live long enough to have their telomeric clock run out on them. Would the effects be similar to the cessastion of cell division by other agents (like radiation), or would it be different?

- Maha (so much for never dying) Vailo

__________________
When you get down to it, Science answers how. Religion answers why. - hippietrekx

The Warp Point, my new geek culture blog.

Howdy Maha,

The best answer I have after near twentyeight years of keeping small animals, often well past their normal experation dates in natural settings, is that it comes on as multiple illnesses all at once as the immune system malfunctions. That's what I was told happens to them at extreme age by several doctors who were regular customers. I had a lady come to me because her betta was sick (siamese fighting fish) and none of my usual remedies helped.

When it died she came in all sad and said she remembered just like yesterday when she bought that fish five years earlier. This animal's normal life span is two years. I had set aside a very nice blue and red one for her. Told her to keep doing what she was doing.

__________________
In your rush to call everyone "entrenched" or closed-minded or "limited" you fail to note that the "limit" here has a very natural boundary: that point at which the evidence stops. - JayUtah

Science fiction was never meant to be an educational tool. - Editor Amazing Tales

Sounds like a fantastic reason for colonising places other than the Earth.

Does anyone have any good places on the net to read about Telomeres? Not a lot seems to be coming up.

__________________
1·618033988749894848204586834365638117720309179805 76286213544862270526046281890244970720720418939113 74

nevermind .. found one

__________________
1·618033988749894848204586834365638117720309179805 76286213544862270526046281890244970720720418939113 74

I dunno Josh, (Long time no see, I think. ) You want to live nine hundred years in a freezing, low pressure hell hole or a boiling, acidic hell hole?

I'll move over before condemning someone to that.

__________________
In your rush to call everyone "entrenched" or closed-minded or "limited" you fail to note that the "limit" here has a very natural boundary: that point at which the evidence stops. - JayUtah

Science fiction was never meant to be an educational tool. - Editor Amazing Tales

Except in some birds where telomeres get longer as the bird gets older. These birds do live a long time for a petrel (20 years) but not long compared to many parrots and they still conk out eventually.

Most people think of colonizing space as if we were little fishies going from a lake in Iowa to a lake in California. When in actuality you are going from said lake in Iowa to which you are perfectly adapted to, into somebodies fishtank.

Ever see a fishtank you would drink out of?

__________________
In your rush to call everyone "entrenched" or closed-minded or "limited" you fail to note that the "limit" here has a very natural boundary: that point at which the evidence stops. - JayUtah

Science fiction was never meant to be an educational tool. - Editor Amazing Tales

Demographically, overpopulation is a myth. Birthrates are already below replacement levels in the vast majority of the developed world, and as developing countries begin to match pace, their birthrates will fall, too. I believe that the UN projects the human population to cap out in the mid-2020s, with the population falling after that.

Also, say that ageing was totally stopped in humans. Don't you think that would cause other demographic shifts, as lifespans would be, on average, around 3 to 6 centuries (that's about how long you get until you're hit by a bus, or somesuch)?

__________________
Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

We stay here and we're asking to be wiped out.

(and good to be back!! missed the place!)

__________________
1·618033988749894848204586834365638117720309179805 76286213544862270526046281890244970720720418939113 74

By what pray tell? Hasn't happened in five million years. That's telling all by itself.

Even after a Chixilub sized event the Earth is STILL more habitable than Mars or Venus ever will be. Who do you recommend we send first to Mars? I don't think the ol trick of emptying the prison systems into the new colonies will work for this one.

Even the Irish would go, "Hey...wait a minute..." Though suspended animation would be easier to maintain with those guys as long as the "bio-reactor" kept producing by-products of bacterial respiration in response to sucrose metabolism.





Yes, I was "smiling when I said that".

I've run into several Irishmen (not Irish-Americans) in my life who had absolutely no sense of humor whatsoever, nor use for anybody that does have one. Guys on the lam from "The Troubles" and all. Had to find out on my own not to muck with those guys. Or to talk politics with them like they were merely the opposite political party. Yeah, there is a story here but it's a long one.

__________________
In your rush to call everyone "entrenched" or closed-minded or "limited" you fail to note that the "limit" here has a very natural boundary: that point at which the evidence stops. - JayUtah

Science fiction was never meant to be an educational tool. - Editor Amazing Tales

World population is expected to peak at about 9.75 billion around 2050. Percentage growth of world population is now way below the peak it reached in the 80's.

2050, pardon me. Thanks.

__________________
Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

Does that mean we're due? What's the point in putting all your eggs in one basket?

__________________
1·618033988749894848204586834365638117720309179805 76286213544862270526046281890244970720720418939113 74

Ah, but that basket is 8,000 miles across and weighs seven with a butt load of zeros after it long tonnes. You got a better one?

__________________
In your rush to call everyone "entrenched" or closed-minded or "limited" you fail to note that the "limit" here has a very natural boundary: that point at which the evidence stops. - JayUtah

Science fiction was never meant to be an educational tool. - Editor Amazing Tales

Don, extinction-level events have happened before, and will happen again.

__________________
Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

I wouldn't know since I don't drink like a fish.

Habitable for small animals maybe, but maybe not for moderate to large animals.

Unless something changes. With the economy in free-fall people may decide to save their money and make their own entertainment, if you catch my meaning... especially with a long, cold winter still ahead of us.

__________________
"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

Of course. But the projection stands, as it is.

__________________
Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

Good thing humans rely on more than just size immunity to survive catastrophe, eh friend?

(Everybody knows I'm merely playing Devil's Advocate, right?)

__________________
In your rush to call everyone "entrenched" or closed-minded or "limited" you fail to note that the "limit" here has a very natural boundary: that point at which the evidence stops. - JayUtah

Science fiction was never meant to be an educational tool. - Editor Amazing Tales

True, we could survive the initial cataclysm of fire and later ice by hiding underground. If we come out soon enough after the strike, we might be able to round up some insta-barbeque and save it to get through the next several years.

__________________
"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau