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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, Interesting) by c0lo on Tuesday October 31 2017, @11:27AM (4 children)
First, TFA is available in full, under one of the CC licences, find it here [pnas.org]. As any theoretical model, it makes assumptions and, assuming everything is correct, the model will be as valid as those assumptions. Always worth to check them.
Here's one example:
Now, of course, if you assume that cooperation doesn't lead to fitness, you, the multicellular organism, are doomed - succumb of old age or of uncontrolled growth... you don't need fancy maths to see it, it's a clear case of begging the question.
So, how would it turn out if cell cooperation increase fitness? Perhaps it will still result in an inevitable death, but at much higher age?
Will infinite age (immortality) achievable only for evergrowing organisms? ('cause I'm quite sure the model also imply a fixed limit for the number of cells, even if the assumption is not explicit)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by SanityCheck on Tuesday October 31 2017, @12:36PM (2 children)
And of course I do not put much weight into statements of someone who uses "like, seriously" to convey an argument.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday October 31 2017, @02:37PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @05:31PM
Your sanity check just failed you, you are apparently creeping into "aging dementia" and should probably invest in an expensive lawn.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @01:20PM
This is another one of those theoretical papers that doesn't compare the predictions of the model to any data. I can't grasp why this is considered acceptable. I'm not saying they need to collect data for the paper. However, there has to be some kind of output of this model that can be compared to existing data...