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posted by martyb on Tuesday October 31 2017, @09:59AM   Printer-friendly
from the getting-old-is-not-for-sissies dept.

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 !!


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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by fustakrakich on Tuesday October 31 2017, @03:14PM (3 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday October 31 2017, @03:14PM (#590045) Journal

    Imagined being sentenced to life [archive.org]!

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @06:24PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @06:24PM (#590134)
    It would be terrible if it turned out our consciousness continues after we die and we just can't do anything about it. No senses, no memory just the stream of consciousness continuing eternally even after the death of the universe.

    Just stare at a wall and don't think of anything. Whittle out everything else and the "You" is still there.

    Can you be so sure that "You" is gone when you sleep? Could it be just the memory bit isn't working? There are people whose memories don't work well but they still seem to experience consciousness and still can suffer.

    Just because you don't remember your nightmare doesn't mean you weren't screaming in your sleep.
    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday October 31 2017, @07:10PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday October 31 2017, @07:10PM (#590159) Journal

      This made the rounds on Google News recently:

      http://bigthink.com/philip-perry/after-death-youre-aware-that-youve-died-scientists-claim [bigthink.com]

      I thought about subbing it but it was just based on an off-hand quote in the Live Science article as far as I could tell.

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      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @09:42PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @09:42PM (#590235)

      Let's think about "we" for a moment.
      Does that include your dog?
      How about that bug that you stepped on as you walked in your front door?
      Closer genetically, how about chimpanzees, which have DNA that is 99 percent the same as humans?

      ...or was there a magical moment which imbued hominids alone with this special eternal consciousness and not other creatures?
      At which level of hominid development did that happen?
      Is it something possessed by "Lucy"? [google.com]

      In short: Metaphysics is bunk.
      Thinking that you have a soul|will live forever is just wishful thinking.
      Primitive superstition. Get over it.

      Want an existence after your last heartbeat?
      Do something of note such that you will persist in people's memories as they use your widget|idea.
      ...or at least be the kind of person that would cause people to remember you.
      Barring that, have a child and raise the kid right; at least some of your DNA will survive.

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]