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Brooke the Immortal: An American Child May Hold Secrets to Aging

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Re: Brooke the Immortal: An American Child May Hold Secrets to Aging

#21

Post by TamDenholm »

I wish we could leave people like this alone, why does this kid have to endure a life of being a lab rat?

Also, giving "mankind the gift of eternal life" is a flawed idea. Simply by improving our medical science which has given people a longer lifespan has caused a ridiculous amount of problems.

There are too many people on this planet and by creating more and more that live longer and longer we are sacrificing the longevity of the human race as a whole, not to mention the other life on this planet.

Re: Brooke the Immortal: An American Child May Hold Secrets to Aging

#22

Post by lionheart »

reasonattlm wrote: post #14

This case has no application in aging research, and is of no interest to the biogerontology community. It's an interesting developmental abnormality, but nothing more. Aging is caused by accumulated biochemical damage, and this person is apparently aging normally at the level of cells and macromolecules.

Even though I agree with you, I have to point out:

You don't know that. Nobody does.

We don't know exactly how aging works and this theory needs to be tested as well. If we stop research because we just know something, we'll never get anywhere.

Re: Brooke the Immortal: An American Child May Hold Secrets to Aging

#23

Post by lukev »

TamDenholm wrote: post #21

I wish we could leave people like this alone, why does this kid have to endure a life of being a lab rat? Also, giving "mankind the gift of eternal life" is a flawed idea. Simply by improving our medical science which has given people a longer lifespan has caused a ridiculous amount of problems. There are too many people on this planet and by creating more and more that live longer and longer we are sacrificing the l…

Disagree strongly. At risk of sounding too metaphorical, death is the greatest enemy of the human race. It represents the loss of unique and worthwhile personalities, and places a strict upper bound on mortal human achievement.

Of course we'll have to deal with the sociological and economic ramifications of that in the scope of limited resources. But it is entirely appropriate to rage against the dying of the light.

Re: Brooke the Immortal: An American Child May Hold Secrets to Aging

#24

Post by gte910h »

lionheart wrote: post #22
reasonattlm wrote: post #14

This case has no application in aging research, and is of no interest to the biogerontology community. It's an interesting developmental abnormality, but nothing more. Aging is caused by accumulated biochemical damage, and this person is apparently aging normally at the level of cells and macromolecules.

Even though I agree with you, I have to point out: You don't know that. Nobody does. We don't know exactly how aging works and this theory needs to be tested as well. If we stop research because we just know something, we'll never get anywhere.

We know a lot about how a lot of different mechanisms of aging works. Although I agree, he very likely doesn't know which ones are and aren't in play in this case either.

Re: Brooke the Immortal: An American Child May Hold Secrets to Aging

#25

Post by joevandyk »

lukev wrote: post #11

Interesting, and I hope that we can learn from her condition. However, I wouldn't call it "immortality" until she's 70 and has the body and development of a teenager. Unfortunately, unless that happens, it's just a rather sad medical condition. Even if we can learn from it.

I don't think anyone's making the claim that she will live forever (or even more than normally).

Re: Brooke the Immortal: An American Child May Hold Secrets to Aging

#26

Post by chc »

guynamedloren wrote: post #16

I've always wondered about the human body. Right now I am studying engineering, but eventually I would like to delve deep into anatomy and biology. An automobile can theoretically run forever as long as it is properly maintained, even if that means replacing major parts - engine, transmission, even frame (but at a certain point the repairs are no longer financially feasible). Why then, can't the human body last forev…

We ought to be able to design a perfect programming language and correspondingly flawless framework, but somehow reality always gets in the way.

Re: Brooke the Immortal: An American Child May Hold Secrets to Aging

#27

Post by Udo »

ugh wrote: post #20

It’s somewhat amusing and nice to see that Aubrey de Grey who is one of the few people on this planet seriously working on immortality and who always had to fight for acceptance is the skeptic in this article.

No, it's should be an important clue for people who are not aging researchers.

Re: Brooke the Immortal: An American Child May Hold Secrets to Aging

#28

Post by chc »

stagas wrote: post #18

Who knows for sure that this isn't even a rare condition? In theory, there could be people living among us that are centuries old and might look like 20-30. If I was, I wasn't going to tell everybody. If you travel a lot people won't notice your condition. I believe this is just proof that the condition exists, not the magnitude of it.

If they're permanently toddlers, I doubt they're doing a lot of travel.

Re: Brooke the Immortal: An American Child May Hold Secrets to Aging

#29

Post by carbocation »

anigbrowl wrote: post #7
carbocation wrote: post #3

"Brooke holds the key to everything," says Walker. He's anxious to press on with his work, because he feels that his time is running out. But Howard Greenberg is stalling. He has long felt that he is protecting a valuable treasure in his red brick house. He's even hired lawyers to examine the issue of the rights to Brooke's genome. It saddens me that the state of human genetics in the United States (perhaps elsewhere…

You're probably familiar with the case of Henrietta Lacks. Do you happen to know how these things are handled abroad? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks

Yes, very much so; her story took place at my hospital. The way that her story is presented to us varies with who does the presenting, but no matter the spin, it's hard not to feel terribly for her and her family.

I'm not familiar with how this works abroad, which is why I tried to qualify my statement.

Re: Brooke the Immortal: An American Child May Hold Secrets to Aging

#30

Post by [deleted] »

TamDenholm wrote: post #21

I wish we could leave people like this alone, why does this kid have to endure a life of being a lab rat? Also, giving "mankind the gift of eternal life" is a flawed idea. Simply by improving our medical science which has given people a longer lifespan has caused a ridiculous amount of problems. There are too many people on this planet and by creating more and more that live longer and longer we are sacrificing the l…

[deleted]
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