The world's only immortal animal • Hacker News Board

Re: The world's only immortal animal

#31

Post by steveitis » Sat, Mar 20, 2010, 5:07 AM UTC

zackattack wrote: post #6

steveitis wrote: post #3

It's my understanding that certain turtles don't exhibit telomere shortening, and are effectively 'immortal' as well in that they don't age.

Do they not get cancer?

I believe that they do,and at very high rates but they get run over by cars much more frequently.

I think that neither really makes them less 'immortal' in the sense that this article means.

Though I can see the argument that errors in cell replication leading to cancerous growths could be counted as a form of natural life span limitation, I would be surprised if it didn't also happen to this jellyfish.

Re: The world's only immortal animal

#32

Post by jared314 » Sat, Mar 20, 2010, 5:12 AM UTC

CUViper wrote: post #11

glhaynes wrote: post #4

Because they are able to bypass death, the number of individuals is spiking. Did they like ... just evolve or something? You'd think they'd have spiked before now and reached equilibrium.

According to one of the linked articles, they are suspected to be hitchhiking in the ballast of large ships, so their habitat is unnaturally expanding. There could always be other factors too, like an over-fished predator.

That sounds similar to the C. taxifolia Algae threat. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/algae/chronology.html

Re: The world's only immortal animal

#33

Post by JCThoughtscream » Sat, Mar 20, 2010, 5:16 AM UTC

But /how do they taste/?

Re: The world's only immortal animal

#34

Post by rick_2047 » Sat, Mar 20, 2010, 5:18 AM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #29

boucher wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like immortality without memory is useless, so really that's the question.

Write stuff down! BAM, problem solved. (Seriously speaking, consider the sci-fi short story possibilities of an individual who had to reboot every 80 years or so, but who had had access to a computer and competent legal/investment advice for roughly the same timescale as the present-day Catholic Church has been in operation. Age 0 through 24 is essentially one long data dump, but he's gotten pretty good at constructi…

Until one day, there is a fire and all his computers with memories are burned beyond repair. And that too on the day of a reboot...

Re: The world's only immortal animal

#35

Post by paraschopra » Sat, Mar 20, 2010, 5:44 AM UTC

Like most living systems, Jellyfishes are self organizing systems. But the difference is that a jellyfish is quite minimalistic in structure and their neural system is simple too. And most certainly, it lacks emotions of any kind.

That is what amazes me about jellyfishes: a very, very simple system genetically programmed to for reproduction lacking any "purpose". And, now they say it can even go back to its proto stage. Wow, evolution is fascinating.

Re: The world's only immortal animal

#36

Post by l0stman » Sat, Mar 20, 2010, 5:49 AM UTC

boucher wrote: post #20

tyler wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I'm not particularly picky about my forms of immortality.

Seems like immortality without memory is useless, so really that's the question.

I wonder if this kind of immortality would be that great. Most of my motivations to do things now come from the time limit factor. If I were immortal with unlimited memory, I think I'd just procrastinate and continue to postpone all the tasks I have to accomplish just because I can.

Re: The world's only immortal animal

#37

Post by a-priori » Sat, Mar 20, 2010, 6:06 AM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #29

boucher wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like immortality without memory is useless, so really that's the question.

Write stuff down! BAM, problem solved. (Seriously speaking, consider the sci-fi short story possibilities of an individual who had to reboot every 80 years or so, but who had had access to a computer and competent legal/investment advice for roughly the same timescale as the present-day Catholic Church has been in operation. Age 0 through 24 is essentially one long data dump, but he's gotten pretty good at constructi…

Keeping a journal probably wouldn't help. Take the case of Clive Wearing, who developed anterograde amnesia after a bout of encephalitis. He can conduct an orchestra, but he can't remember what he did 10 minutes before.

He keeps a journal. It's a timestamped log of him saying that he's "finally awake" over and over.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Wearing

In addition to robbing you of your past, amnesia makes the future unknowable. Amnesia traps you perpetually in the present with no way of improving it.

Re: The world's only immortal animal

#38

Post by roundsquare » Sat, Mar 20, 2010, 7:04 AM UTC

rflrob wrote: post #17

hristov wrote: post #12

What about enthropy? I would expect that after going between polyp and adult many times the DNA of some cells may get damaged, and the cells may not convert correctly to their new cell types, and eventually the organism will become more and more wrong until it dies.

It all depends on how well the organism can distinguish between the incorrectly copied DNA (this is probably what you mean by damage) and the right sequence. Given that most of the DNA will be copied correctly, if slightly wrong bits can be detected and excised, then the organism should stay healthy. Biological codes are just as digital as computer ones.

I think @hristov is referring to the cells eventually not being able to perform their function... as a result of friction (or something else) eventually making each cell less effective.

Or at least, that was my first thought.

Re: The world's only immortal animal

#39

Post by Groxx » Sat, Mar 20, 2010, 7:15 AM UTC

zackattack wrote: post #6

steveitis wrote: post #3

It's my understanding that certain turtles don't exhibit telomere shortening, and are effectively 'immortal' as well in that they don't age.

Do they not get cancer?

There's still background radiation.

That the telomere doesn't shorten basically means the DNA doesn't "age"; cells don't become more likely to mutate after X duplications begin to damage the code, like ours do.

Re: The world's only immortal animal

#40

Post by Groxx » Sat, Mar 20, 2010, 7:17 AM UTC

kissickas wrote: post #19

What about Hydra? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_immortality#Hydra

Yeah, I think there are a few animals like that. So while it's not likely the only "immortal" animal, this jellyfish does definitely seem to have a unique kind of immortality.