DailyDirt: What's A Good Lifespan?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

There's an Isaac Asimov quote: "If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster." But if there really were accurate predictions for a person's lifespan, how would people change? Maybe medical science is on the verge of creating a pharmaceutical solution for a fountain of youth. We seem to be a long way from a cure for death, but at least a few people think immortality will be available to humanity (eg. Aubrey de Grey, Ray Kurzweil, etc.) in the next few decades. Here are a few links to the study of aging and its causes.

• There is a curious correlation between body mass and lifespans for nearly all known species. There are a few exceptions, but generally, the bigger the animal, the longer it lives. (Maybe those exceptional species could point to genetic causes for longevity.) [url]
• Some rare genetic mutations can prevent people from aging normally. One 9yo girl has the body of an infant; a 29yo man looks like a pre-teen; a 31yo woman appears to be no older than a toddler. [url]
• Researchers are looking for genetic markers that correlate with aging -- finding thousands of indicators that could potentially predict an individual's natural lifespan. Some of the biomarkers suggest that men age faster than women, possibly explaining why women tend to live longer. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: aging, biology, biomarkers, biotech, fountain of youth, genetic mutations, immortality, lifespan, longevity