Old age must be resisted and its deficiencies supplied. —Cicero We know that as we grow older, our chances of continued survival decline. How does aging kill us? The answers to this question lead directly to the big payoff—how to slow or partially reverse these deadly processes. The accumulated result of the unrepaired or imperfectly […]
We cannot retard senescence or reverse its direction, unless we know the nature of the mechanisms which are the substratum of duration [basis of longevity]. —Alexis Carrel, Man the Unknown, 1935 In this set of posts, we take an overall view of what we are up against in the way of aging mechanisms. There are […]
Progress in control of aging was very slow in the early years of gerontological research, a few decades ago. Research ers did not understand why various procedures (such as dietary restriction in young rats) or substances (like RNA) prolonged animal life spans. The discoveries of several mechanisms of aging have vastly accelerated the rate of […]
Read more The Blind Men and the Elephant; or, The Many Mechanisms of Aging III
“’Tis clear enough the Elephant Is very like a tree!” The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, Said, “E’en the blindest man Can tell what this resembles most; Deny the fact who can: This marvel of an Elephant Is very like a fan!” The Sixth no sooner had begun About the beast to grope […]
Read more The Blind Men and the Elephant; or, The Many Mechanisms of Aging II
“The Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant” It was six men of Indostan To learning much inclined,Who went to see the Elephant (Though all of them were blind),That each by observation Might satisfy his mind. The First approached the ElephantAnd, happening to fall Against his broad and sturdy side,At once began to bawl: […]
Read more The Blind Men and the Elephant; or, The Many Mechanisms of Aging I
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. —Albert Einstein Most biological experiments […]
Read more Prolonging Life in the Laboratory; or, Why Animal Experiments Are Relevant to Humans
“A vitamin C is a vitamin C is a vitamin C.” A synthetic (made by a chemical factory) molecule of vitamin C is exactly the same as a natural (made by a plant’s biochemical factory) molecule of vitamin C. It is argued that there may be nutritional cofactors (some possibly unidentified) accompanying natural vitamins. It […]
You say nothing’s right but natural things … you fool. Poison oak is a natural plant—why don’t you put some in your food? I don’t care if there’s chemicals in it, as long as my lettuce is crisp! Preservatives might just be preserving you,I think that’s something you missed! —”Eat Starch Mom,” lyrics by Grace […]
In scientifically sound studies, researchers allow for variations by using a device called controls. Controls are experimental subjects who are exposed to exactly the same conditions as the test subjects—those receiving treatment— except that they do not receive the treatment being tested. Ideally, this should be the only variable between control and experimental groups. Controls […]
Successful prediction by a hypothesis is considered strong evidence in support of its validity. Thus, tests for various logical consequences of a hypothesis are devised. For example, Einstein’s general theory of relativity required that a ray of light passing a massive object (such as a star) would be bent by the gravitational field of that […]