Academic Press, Although the best shot at immortality is still through one's work, there is hope on the scientific horizon that people may be able to live considerably longer than they do now. Over the past 15 years or so, the implementation of molecular genetic approaches in a number of different laboratory organisms has revolutionized research on aging.
By systematically manipulating the genes of worms, flies and yeast cells, investigators have identified dozens of genes that can extend the normal life span of each of these species. And the mammalian counterparts of some of those genes seem to share those same life-extending properties—at least in mice.
So, the good news is that life span is a plastic trait and that we have identified a large number of genes that can act to delay the aging process. The bad news is that we know next to nothing of how these genes influence life span. Most biologists accept that aging results from the accumulation of damage to cellular components. But the nature, targets and source of this damage are still subjects of speculation. Finch, a professor of gerontology at the University of Southern California, sets out to identify the mechanisms of aging and of age-related diseases, as well as the forces that have shaped the evolution of human life span.
His classic Longevity, Senescence and the Genome University of Chicago Press, has already secured him scientific immortality. His book is perhaps even more ambitious than its predecessor and takes into account the significant progress made in aging research over the intervening 17 years.
The idea that toxic by-products of normal metabolism reactive oxygen species or free radicals contribute to the aging process has been around for more than a half-century. An enormous body of evidence points to oxygen radicals being key players in a number of age-related diseases.
However, the free-radical theory of aging, as originally stated, remains controversial. One of the great achievements of The Biology of Human Longevity is a comprehensive overview of the effects of free radicals in aging and age-related disease. Finch delves into the experimental details of, and points out the flaws in, several decades of published work. Importantly, he goes beyond reviewing the literature and successfully integrates the free-radical theory with what has been learned about other forms of damage, notably inflammation.
Panels D and E show the plaques at roughly 8 times higher magnification, revealing those in the section from the HIV-infected individual panel D to be morphologically diffuse compared with the condensed plaques in the section from the person with Alzheimer's disease panel E. The sections in panels F and G underwent Bielschowsky silver staining for neuritic plaques; F was negative for the plaques and G was positive for them. From The Biology of Human Longevity. The role of inflammatory processes in Alzheimer's disease, arterial disease and obesity is well known.
You might still want to come into the real world. You could link your mind to millions of other minds, and have unlimited intelligence, and be in multiple places at once. So anyone 90 or under by So anybody under 50 has got a good chance of it, and anyone under 40 almost definitely will have access to this.
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Jump directly to the content. Sign in. All Football. Why do we have to die? Theologians and religious believers have long had a ready-made answer: death is simply a transition from this stage to the next in a cosmic proscenium. Most scientists, however, are more hardline realists about death. Who are these techno-dreamers? Currently this is done through the vitrification of the brain, which involves turning the cryopreserved brain into a glass-like substance.
Could it work? No one frozen to date will ever be brought back alive. As the name suggests, extropians are against entropy. Given the formidable power of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which holds that the universe is in a state of entropy, these are bold thinkers indeed, with such colorful noms de plume as T. The goals of extropy are uplifting if not utopian: longer lives, more intelligence, greater wisdom, improved physical and mental health, and the elimination of political, economic, and cultural limits to personal development and social progress.
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