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Anti-ageing compound set for human trials after turning clock back for mice

theguardian.com

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Re: Anti-ageing compound set for human trials after turning clock back for mice

#201

Post by eli_gottlieb »

davorb wrote: post #185
coldtea wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At any point in the discussion on whether people have a right to die, or whether it was ok to use tissue from aborted fetuses for stem cell research or whether we need universal health care, has anyone ever asked, "Well, what do the philosophers think?" Yes, many people. In civilised countries that are not all about "pop culture" and where science is not supposed to be half about marketing stuff to people -- people…

> In civilised countries [...] Name one.

In France, "philosopher" is a very common title for a public intellectual to hold.

Re: Anti-ageing compound set for human trials after turning clock back for mice

#202

Post by [deleted] »

heed wrote: post #176
tokenadult wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aubrey De Grey is younger than I am, but he looks old and haggard, much older than I look (and much older than my younger sister who is almost exactly his age looks). I don't know why people take anti-aging advice from Aubrey De Grey. His advice has meager uptake or support in reliable sources on human medicine. AFTER EDIT: I see the first reaction to this comment was a silent downvote, which evokes my desire to lear…

You were likely downvoted for your rudeness, and fallaciousness. How he looks has no relevance to his ideas, his work or this thread.

[deleted]

Re: Anti-ageing compound set for human trials after turning clock back for mice

#203

Post by rubinelli »

trendoid wrote: post #199
chongli wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My only objection to life extension, philosophically speaking, is a political one. What if life extension becomes another tool of dominance for the rich and powerful? An eternal, dystopic corporatocracy sounds pretty damn horrible to me.

Yeah, and hence moral education(which imparts critical thinking and rational moral values) of next generation seems like the most important task to me. Why too much money and power are not the most important things in this world and showing them examples of how they can corrupt you. Learning, sharing and making the world a 'better' place is what should motivate next generation and we urgently need to find a way to br…

But do we really know what we are supposed to teach them? Imagine this magic pill was available three hundred years ago. Imagine what the world would be like, if people who believed slavery was part of life, and that women were inherently inferior to men, were not only alive, but still calling the shots.

Re: Anti-ageing compound set for human trials after turning clock back for mice

#204

Post by trendoid »

tokenadult wrote: post #131
KVFinn wrote: post #44

From Aubrey De Grey: Short answer is it’s not all that big a deal in biomedical terms. It’s a great discovery in terms of understanding mitochondria, and it provides a new way to rejuvenate mito function, but it doesn’t tell us that rejuvenating mito function in isolation in an otherwise still-old animal is a good idea -- and there have for many years been other ways to rejuvenate mito function which have not led to…

Aubrey De Grey is younger than I am, but he looks old and haggard, much older than I look (and much older than my younger sister who is almost exactly his age looks). I don't know why people take anti-aging advice from Aubrey De Grey. His advice has meager uptake or support in reliable sources on human medicine. AFTER EDIT: I see the first reaction to this comment was a silent downvote, which evokes my desire to lear…

Wow, For a second I thought maybe someone hacked your account and posted that. Others have already pointed out what was the flaw, so I hope you get why exactly you were downvoted.

Re: Anti-ageing compound set for human trials after turning clock back for mice

#205

Post by mcrider »

morganherlocker wrote: post #130
gaius wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny, I have a friend who is a full-time professional philosopher (teaches at a university) and you would not believe the amount of earnest essay writing there was in the philosophy community about Miley Cyrus's performance at the VMAs (something I've not actually seen myself). All sorts of theories about Freud and Hegel and this and that. Look Philos, I said to him, she got up on stage and did a little dance a…

I would just point out that most of modern philosophy is not really like this. I think most people think philosophers spend there time arguing about ethics, when this is only one tiny part of philosophy. A good chunk of the current discussion in philosophy of science, for example, centers around epistemology to varying degrees as it relates to current discoveries in genetics and neuroscience. The top philosophers in…

Many universities link these disciplines (and Psychology, and Linguistics) explicitly -- Its called Cognitive Science. I majored in it and couldn't imagine a better thing to have studied.

Re: Anti-ageing compound set for human trials after turning clock back for mice

#206

Post by yxhuvud »

pvnick wrote: post #37

Researchers injected a chemical called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, or NAD, which reduces in the body as we age. The addition of this compound led to the radical reversal in the ageing of the mice. While this is pretty cool, it seems that the most immediate effect would be a higher availability of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), meaning more energy "currency" for the body's machinery to work with [1] [2] (someone…

Why do you believe that improving the quality of the decades that are now the last won't prolong peoples lives? Personally, I'd expect the result to be pretty drastic.

Re: Anti-ageing compound set for human trials after turning clock back for mice

#207

Post by yxhuvud »

xuhu wrote: post #55
rtfeldman wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anti-aging has nothing more to do with immortality than does, say, curing a particular disease. Aging is only one of many causes of death; if we solve that one, there's still heart disease, stroke, getting hit by a bus...

There were 2.5M deaths in US in 2010: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm If you take other leading causes out (accidents 120k, diabetes 70k, influenza 50k, suicide 40k), it still leaves about 2M deaths related to ageing: heart, cancer, chronic respiratory, stroke, alzheimers.

A lot of diabetes and influenza related diseases could also be related to ageing.

Re: Anti-ageing compound set for human trials after turning clock back for mice

#208

Post by eli_gottlieb »

Filligree wrote: post #134
maratd wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a valid point, but if 20 year olds are now treated like children and the fertility window doesn't change, procreating becomes somewhat difficult. In fact, isn't that what's happening in all the countries where longevity has shot up and the fertility rate plummeted?

Sounds like a good deal to me. I'll take longer life over more children any day of the year.

So you're ok with living in a society where most of the children are made by religious fanatics of the "Quiverfull" style? Because this is what tends to be the consequence when educated, wealthier, secular people can't found families in their 20s.

Re: Anti-ageing compound set for human trials after turning clock back for mice

#209

Post by onetwofiveten »

pvnick wrote: post #37

Researchers injected a chemical called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, or NAD, which reduces in the body as we age. The addition of this compound led to the radical reversal in the ageing of the mice. While this is pretty cool, it seems that the most immediate effect would be a higher availability of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), meaning more energy "currency" for the body's machinery to work with [1] [2] (someone…

You may have a strong attachment to mortality, but I personally don't. I strongly believe I would be able to cope with immortality, and I think it would very much be worth it for a chance to see more of the universe and the future of humanity. Please keep that in mind when you consider the morality of these issues. Although you personally would rather face death, I personally would not - and I don't think anyone else has the right to determine whether someone else should die.

On a side note, I think it's quite sad that you think every day life is mentally deteriorating, especially because of "sin". Personally I'm pretty much at peace, and doing my best to live a good life and change to be a better person.

Re: Anti-ageing compound set for human trials after turning clock back for mice

#210

Post by [deleted] »

derefr wrote: post #90
11001 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, before we started to "poop in the hole", the rates of infectious diseases were way lower.

Wait, what? Pooping in a (deep) hole, as opposed to, say, against a tree, is extremely good for people. Especially people who don't wear shoes. Ref: http://endtheneglect.org/2012/01/how-the-outhouse-helped-sav...

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