At Scientific American: In this experiment, cells awoke and multiplied that settled to the bottom when pterosaurs and plesiosaurs drifted overhead. Four geologic periods had ground by, but these microbes, protected from radiation and cosmic rays by a thick coat of ocean and sediment, quietly persisted. And now, when offered a bite, they awoke and carried on as if nothing unusual had happened.
Tag: longevity
Why do humans live to be old when most animals don’t? Pop psychology weighs in
If it were not rigorously pounded out of you by a pop science education, you’d almost think that human intelligence has something to with longevity…
Claim: Microbes that are – individually – 100 million years old come out of hibernation…
ScienceDaily: Morono was initially taken aback by the results. “At first I was skeptical, but we found that up to 99.1% of the microbes in sediment deposited 101.5 million years ago were still alive and were ready to eat,” he said.
Benefits of attending religious services increasingly accepted
Some of us think that this kind of data is thought-provoking but fuzzy. Just not drinking, smoking, or doing drugs usually means more years to a person’s life. How do we tease out the part that spirituality plays?
The “purely evolutionary perspective” is a waste of time
Only a “purely evolutionary perspective” would fail to see that the primary reasons for the survival of old women are intelligence and culture. Some old women are useful; some are not. But intelligence causes most of them not to avoid stupid situations where they just get killed (the way an animal might). And cultural values, carefully nurtured by the old women themselves, cause their survival to be valued. Treat this sort of evolutionary biology the way you would treat grievance studies. Be polite.
Human-like lifespan 100,000–200,000 years ago?
Teeth from the upper jaw of a child (the Xujiayao child) of about 6 and a half, who died between 100,000-200,000 years ago were examined by X-ray: But the ancient child’s overall dental growth and development falls within the range observed among kids today, paleoanthropologist Song Xing of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing Read More…
Does human mortality really slow down between 105 yrs and 110 years?
Remember the story earlier this year about the anomalous plateau found in the human lifespan, such that “after the age of 105, human mortality seems to hit a plateau. That is, you aren’t any more likely to die at 110 than at 105”? It’s been challenged by a study in PLOS Biology which suggests that the Read More…
Do we really live longer because of “longevity genes”? Researchers cast doubt
It’s now suggested that people likely to live long tend to find each other (assortative mating). How else to explain this?Researchers found that siblings’ and first cousins’ lifespans were well correlated but also: But spouses’ lifespans were correlated, too. That could be easily explained by spouses sharing the same household and lifestyle: eating the same Read More…
Aging has always been with us, say researchers (to no one’s surprise)
This group somehow links it to natural selection: A new USC Dornsife study indicates that aging may have originated at the very beginning of the evolution of life, at the same time as the evolution of the first genes. … This could be a game changer for research on longevity and aging. It may also Read More…
Researcher: Ancient people were not all dead by 30 years of age
Human lifespans have not changed over the millennia: People in the past were not all dead by 30. Ancient documents confirm this. In the 24th century B.C., the Egyptian Vizier Ptahhotep wrote verses about the disintegrations of old age. The ancient Greeks classed old age among the divine curses, and their tombstones attest to survival Read More…
Study: Religiously affiliated people lived “9.45 and 5.64 years longer…”
From Chuck Dinerstein at American Council for Science and Health: There is increasing evidence that a correlation exists between a person’s social support and engagement and their longevity. At a bare minimum, it makes sense because it is challenging to manage chronic disease or recovery from hospitalization on your own. A new study looks at Read More…