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

spiegel.de

61–70 of 97 posts

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

#61
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.

There's no proof that she's going to live any longer than a normal human. She's just developing much more slowly than normal. She's also had many severe medical conditions which required intensive medical care. She still has to be fed via a gastric feeding tube. I doubt anyone with a similar condition would have survived the first 5 years of their life as short as 60 years ago.

Well, at the end of the article, there was mention of a 40 year old in the body of a 10 year old boy. We can probably observe him to see if such people can have abnormally long lifespans.

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

#62
post #32

The human race has a problem or two to solve before it can lay claim to "immortality." For example: 1. The 20th century brought us the "war to end all wars," followed by a "lost generation" that essentially turned to boozing and high living as a way of escaping the loss of joy and the mass death of trench warfare; it brought us the mechanized warfare of WWII, by which devastation and death rained from the skies upon…

I know it's only one part of your comment, but Steven Pinker argues very convincingly that human violence is at an all time low, even when including events like WWII.

Ted talk: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth...

Chart of warfare deaths: http://www.martincwiner.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/maled... (Note: that last one includes 2 world wars!)

Edge article: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/pinker07/pinker07_index.html

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

#63
post #32

The human race has a problem or two to solve before it can lay claim to "immortality." For example: 1. The 20th century brought us the "war to end all wars," followed by a "lost generation" that essentially turned to boozing and high living as a way of escaping the loss of joy and the mass death of trench warfare; it brought us the mechanized warfare of WWII, by which devastation and death rained from the skies upon…

> The human race has a problem or two to solve before it can lay claim to "immortality.

This is not how technology advances. Advancements happen, problems are solved (and created) and we deal with them after the fact. We don't coordinate our efforts into an orderly march towards the future.

As much convenient as it would be otherwise.

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

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article "Her teeth, including her baby teeth, are like those of an eight-year-old. The length of the telomeres, on the other hand, corresponds to her actual age." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayflick_limit "The Hayflick limit was discovered by Leonard Hayflick in 1961,[1] at the Wistar Institute (Philadelphia), when Hayflick demonstrated that a population of normal human fetal cells in a cell culture divide…

Telomeres prevent cancer by limiting cell division and Brooke's are normal. Other aspects of aging cause cancer but she is supposedly immune to those. But if her telomeres are shortening, doesn't that mean her aging will eventually catch up to normal because her cells stop regenerating?

> But if her telomeres are shortening

It means she is aging. She is not developing.

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

#65

"The length of the telomeres, on the other hand, corresponds to her actual age. " how come "immortality" comes to play here?

+1 million. She's still aging , she's just not developing (by aging I mean the kind that kills you. Being an adult does not kill you; being old does.)

> being old does.

Actually, being old does not suffice. You need a combination of short telomeres and cell damage.

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

#66

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…

Computational biochem student here. Unfortunately we do not have the technological prowess to replace parts of our body as they age. Researchers are working on growing whole organs from the extracellular scaffolds of cadavers, but this technique is in its infancy and I would take all news concerning it with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, we are limited by which organs and tissues we can replace. Case in point: we ca…

Can I ask you three questions?

1) What are the names of the courses you're taking this year? 2) What books are you reading for your studies? 3) Who would you most want to work with, in your field?

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

#67

"Biological immortality is possible," says Walker. "If you don't get hit by a car or by lightning, you could live at least 1,000 years." Interesting that the definition of immortality is living 1000 years.

I'll be surprised if there are still meat-based humans in zoos by the time I get to a 100... This one is to be a very interesting century, if we don't ruin it completely.

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

#68
post #54

Interesting. I always thought that living beings age just because they were programmed to do so, because that's how the genetic algorithm works I guess.

Programmed isn't quit the right word. It is true that aging is in our genetic code, but it has arising via random mutation combined with selection. This case is hypothesized to be a result of yet another random mutation that has tampered with the aging mechanics. Thus, it's interest to scientists.

Death supposedly helps evolution by removing previous iterations of the genome from the gene pool, leaving newer, allegedly better adapted, "models" with less competition. It works cross-species - if your species does not provide better adapted generations for some time, it will be outcompeted into extinction.

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

#69

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…

Computational biochem student here. Unfortunately we do not have the technological prowess to replace parts of our body as they age. Researchers are working on growing whole organs from the extracellular scaffolds of cadavers, but this technique is in its infancy and I would take all news concerning it with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, we are limited by which organs and tissues we can replace. Case in point: we ca…

I enjoy machine learning, pure and applied maths. Where do I start? Any books, any summaries of the state of the art for the computationally inclined? I ignorantly guess that graph theory, statistics and perhaps even group theory may provide useful perspectives? I know dynamical systems theory has been applied and hear you can code new simple organisms or something? Am I talking nonsense? heh This has always been an end goal of mine but I don't know where to begin. I figure start now and in 5 - 10 years I'll be ready to join you :)

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

#70
post #32

The human race has a problem or two to solve before it can lay claim to "immortality." For example: 1. The 20th century brought us the "war to end all wars," followed by a "lost generation" that essentially turned to boozing and high living as a way of escaping the loss of joy and the mass death of trench warfare; it brought us the mechanized warfare of WWII, by which devastation and death rained from the skies upon…

I know it's only one part of your comment, but Steven Pinker argues very convincingly that human violence is at an all time low, even when including events like WWII. Ted talk: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth... Chart of warfare deaths: http://www.martincwiner.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/maled... (Note: that last one includes 2 world wars!) Edge article: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture…

World War II was really boring if you lived in South America at the time.
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