Hydra

by Christie Ewen 2/13/10

This fresh water organism deserves more attention. Hydra may be immortal because they regenerate their tissues and organs without an apparent end state. There's not enough data to make a conclusion but Daniel E. Martinez's study appears to suggest Hydra are indeed immortal.

An interesting point raised about evolutionary biology in both sources listed below is about TIMING. Just having the desired genes (that includes the so called "junk" DNA) is not enough to make an organism immortal, switches need to turn the genes ON and/or OFF at specific times.

REFERENCES

MORTALITY PATTERNS SUGGEST LACK OF SENESCENCE IN HYDRA

by Daniel E. Martinez

PBS Nova What Darwin Never Knew

What is the difference between aging and senescence?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3401/01-ask.html

Training to Be Young Again

How about training to be young again? In the movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a man regresses from an old man into a baby. Rather than just growing into an adult how about switching gears to be young again?

Do you remember what it was like to be young? so carefree? happy? hopeful? Your heart beats differently. No bills to worry about. No worries about invisible invaders called germs. All the stress that goes hand in hand with growing up. What if we could pick what we can forget? like selective amnesia?

And if we can regress like in the movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, who will take care of us? Interestingly, the Dali Lama monks believe in reincarnation and they take it as so far to take care of a child believed to be an incarnate of someone deceased. Perhaps, these monks have been preparing for the day when reincarnation is made possible through science. Maybe science is not exactly what they expected but the idea of living forever and how to deal with immortality is the same.

Complete Human Genomes on the Cheap

An entire human genome can be sequenced now for less than $5,000, down from $20 million a few years ago. This trend suggests prices will be negligible to the point procedures will become routine. Affordability dictates how soon we can expect individualized medicine, nutrition, ancestry tracing, cures for diseases, genetics design and engineering, and even physical immortality.

-- Christie Ewen

For more information see ars technica:

Complete Genomics produces a cheap—well, $5,000—human genome

A brief guide to DNA sequencing

DNA sequencing part 2: ligases and PCR

Partheno - what??? PARTHENOGENESIS!

PARTHENOGENESIS IN KOMODO DRAGONS (read more about it on nature.com)

A female Komodo dragon isolated from males produced an offspring without male fertilization. This goes to show Nature's proclivity for life proliferation is so strong, life will clone itself. True, genetic diversity is necessary for survival in the face of unpredictable environmental forces. Whereas in terms of searching for physical immortality, manipulating our genes to trigger self cloning will allow for greater control over our environment (i.e., we could ride the moon).

In the interest of searching for physical immortality, it would help to understand the genetic makeup of the Komodo dragon and the triggers for parthenogenesis which could aid in better understanding self cloning in the face of mortality.

By Christie Ewen

Soul: Nature vs. Nurture?

Where is the soul of a person? What happens to the soul when the body dies?

Experiences don't define a person. Obviously a good environment that nurtures the body for proper development is necessary. But if you reconstruct a person using genetic information then you are recreating the exact same person. The soul arises from the physical being created from the genetic information. If the person dies, the soul dies as well.

What about Identical twins who share exact genes?

They are the same person.

How can we test this idea of the soul arising from the body? What is a valid scientific approach? How can we test this idea by observing the behavior of cloned insects or animals?

In the news:

Do Twins Have a Sixth Sense?

-- Christie Ewen

What is the Impact of Lactose in Adults?

I've been thinking about lactose intolerance and galactosemia.  Perhaps, adults shouldn't be drinking milk? or dairy products?  Although most people have developed a tolerance to lactose, I'm wondering what are the other possible deleterious effects of lactose.

Lactose is broken down into glucose and galactose.  Those with galactosemia cannot break down galactose which leads to serious health problems.  The only treatment is eliminating lactose and galactose in the diet.

It should be noted that The Okinawa diet consists of almost no dairy products.   Unlike, the Blue Zones diet which encourages the consumption of goat's milk (contains lactose).

Also, cheese lactose content is much lower than milk or yogurt (See Stonyfield's lactose chart)

This needs further investigation.

by Christie Ewen

Life and Death (Yin and yang)

Does life and death go hand in hand?  What gives life, gives death and vice versa.  What form of death is necessary to be born again (sounds almost biblical)?

Here's an idea (not entirely thought through): How about introducing a virus that carries genetic information that mirrors the genetic information of the individual minus certain information to start a regression?  Then reintroduce the full genetic information at a desired age to kickstart the progression?  Finally, introduce a repeat cycle information.

-- Christie E.