Michael Rose: Some Organisms Don't Age

A lot of organisms don't age at all. The reason is that in organisms that evolve by strictly symmetrical fissile reproduction, splitting exactly into two, natural selection stays strong. Evolution therefore gets rid of the problem of aging. The molecular and cell biology of eukaryotic cells has nothing to do with the fundamental cause of aging.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• evolutionary biology
• aging
• longevity
• anti-aging
• life extension

[kendraogolin]

I loved his work in Devo..This guy rocked in short shorts!!

[slartibartfats]

What Michael doesn't mention here is that natural selection is a compromise process: it can only optimise the given organism for reproductive success. An example is our eye which is pretty good but suffers from limitations such as the blind spot, a quirk of the eye's development that is not fixable by evolution. Thus it may be the case that some ageing processes have not been eliminated by evolution so evolutionary biology only gives a partial picture of ageing.