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Aging is a natural part of life, but that hasn't stopped people from embarking on efforts to stop the process. Unfortunately, perhaps, those attempts are futile, according to University of Arizona researchers who have proved that it's mathematically impossible to halt aging in multicellular organisms like humans. "Aging is mathematically inevitable - like, seriously inevitable. There's logically, theoretically, mathematically no way out," said Joanna Masel, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and at the UA.
Masel and UA postdoctoral researcher Paul Nelson outline their findings on math and aging in a new study titled "Intercellular Competition and Inevitability of Multicellular Aging," published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Current understanding of the evolution of aging leaves open the possibility that aging could be stopped if only science could figure out a way to make selection between organisms perfect. One way to do that might be to use competition between cells to eliminate poorly functioning "sluggish" cells linked to aging, while keeping other cells intact. However, the solution isn't that simple, Masel and Nelson say.
Two things happen to the body on a cellular level as it ages, Nelson explains. One is that cells slow down and start to lose function, like when your hair cells, for example, stop making pigment. The other thing that happens is that some cells crank up their growth rate, which can cause cancer cells to form. As we get older, we all tend, at some point, to develop cancer cells in the body, even if they're not causing symptoms, the researchers say. Masel and Nelson found that even if natural selection were perfect, aging would still occur, since cancer cells tend to cheat when cells compete.
https://phys.org/news/2017-10-mathematically-impossible-aging-scientists.html
[Abstract]: Intercellular competition and the inevitability of multicellular aging
So, either you die of old age or you die of cancer. Choose wisely !!
(Score: 3, Touché) by maxwell demon on Tuesday October 31 2017, @10:26AM (14 children)
Actually it's quite easy to stop the aging process. The problem is that the method to do so also stops all other processes, with the exception of decomposition.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Wootery on Tuesday October 31 2017, @10:52AM (6 children)
As always, the solution is cryonics.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @08:37PM (5 children)
After they have reanimated the 1st frozen stiff, -then- you will have a point.
Until then, it's just expensive self-indulgent wishful thinking.
...and the problem with adding years to your life is that those years are added on to THE END.
When you're old, it hurts to do things that you didn't even give a second thought to doing when you were 19.
...and when you're old and you get injured, it takes forever to heal.
You want -more- of that??
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday November 01 2017, @05:17AM (4 children)
Cryonics is making a gamble on future medical capabilities becoming much more advanced than today's, including the ability to safely unfreeze a cryoprotectant filled meatbag and reverse recent death. If you lose the bet and never get defrosted or revival doesn't work, you were going to die anyway. So it's a good bet.
Contrary to what the dumb article would have you believe, anti-aging and regenerative medicine are possible. Those will also advance greatly by the time popsicles start to get defrosted.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @06:53AM (3 children)
Yeah. That was the phrase I was looking for.
are possible
Perhaps. I won't be holding my breath.
...and I don't see coming back after everyone you know is dead and everything you know is useless as a great enticement.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday November 01 2017, @07:01AM (2 children)
It depends on your motivations. Maybe you're massively antisocial and more interested in new knowledge and science than old relationships. You could also make connections with new people, a fresh start.
Maybe you plan to be frozen as a family, one at a time [bbc.com].
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @06:57PM (1 child)
Definitions:
Social: You are invited and you go to the party
Asocial (like asynchronous or asymmetrical): You are invited to the party but you don't go
Anti-social: You are NOT invited to the party but you crash it anyway and spoil everyone's fun
Really Anti-social: You go to the party and try to kill everyone there
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 21 2017, @05:04PM
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday October 31 2017, @05:01PM (2 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @05:29PM
Couple of thoughts:
1. They do decay somewhat, thus part of why older women are more prone to babies with birth defects.
2. Very much doubt they fix themselves, more likely they go into stasis until a sperm penetrates their outer wall.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @07:54PM
Most mutations apparently happen during the actual process of cell division. So, if the cells stop dividing they won't accumulate many mutations.
(Score: 2) by driven on Tuesday October 31 2017, @09:00PM (3 children)
Yep, just like it's easy to kill cancer. Just not easy to do it without killing the host.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday November 01 2017, @05:22AM (2 children)
Nanobots are an obvious solution for both cancer and anti-aging. If they can interact with DNA inside of cells, they could repair (or alter?) genomes using a digital reference. If they can't get inside cells, at least they could identify cancer cells and zap them.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday November 01 2017, @06:45AM
Now you have to fight the aging of the nanobots. :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday November 01 2017, @11:50AM
> they could repair (or alter?)
what would Bender do?
Account abandoned.