Aging Discovery Yields Nobel Prize

An anonymous reader writes This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to three scientists who have solved a major problem in biology: how the chromosomes can be copied in a complete way during cell divisions and how they are protected against degradation. The Nobel Laureates have shown that the solution is to be found in the ends of the chromosomes, called the telomeres, and in an enzyme that forms them."

Comments

Good find

[MistrX]

It's great news however how are we going to solve the population crisis when the Earth gets too small?

I always knew I was going to be 512 years old before I die. :]

Re:Good find

[Dunbal]

Well of course the wealthy elite will be allowed to breed and live longer, while the serfs will be culled at regular intervals, through war, etc.

Business as usual, really. The more things change, the more things stay the same.

Re:Good find

[corbettw]

If that number were anywhere close to accurate, we would have massive amounts of starvation across the globe, considering the current population is more than 12,000 times the number you provided for the theoretical max population.

Re:Good find

[DrLang21]

It's also worth pointing out that the starvation we do have is not for lack of food production.

Re:Sooo

[MyLongNickName]

Better than being dead.

You really think so? I tend to think that there are certain fates that are worse than death.

Speak for yourself

[arcite]

There was a story out the other day saying that 50% of the people being born now in developed countries will reach age 100.

So Speak for yourself if you want to jump off a bridge at 85. I work with several incredibly bright people who are in their mid 70's who still travel the world. With the advent of information technology we can even do our work without being physically active, just a computer and internet access.

By the time I turn 85 in the 2050's, it will be the new 55! I'll race you to the top of the mountain.

Re:old news

[KraftDinner]

I'm not sure where you are seeing that the summary sounds like it's a recent discovery. The only thing would be that the scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize this year, which is true. And yes, you're right, this discovery is not recent. Of course, it sometimes takes decades for people to be awarded a Nobel Prize for work they did decades ago.

Re:old news

[herring0]

From what I recall of genetics, the cellular aging is (partially) what leads to shorter life spans and increased age related problems in clones. If you are cloning an animal it is kind of like making a copy of a copy since the telomeres are actually a part of the chromosomes they are transferred into the new host.

This leads to the telomeres being extended far beyond their 'normal' lifespan and you end up with all kinds of abnormalities that usually wouldn't be present until the subject is much older even though they still look young.

If nothing else, this discovery should help in the research of cloned animals and livestock, etc. But take all this with a grain of salt...I've not been involved with genetics for the better part of 12 years.

Re:old news

[Daniel Dvorkin]

Anyone who pays attention to how science Nobels are awarded knows that they're generally given for older work which has shown to be important over time. So anyone who thinks the story is calling it a new discovery, and criticizes it on that basis, is pretty much making an ass of himself.