Collecting thoughts, giving them meaning and having fun while at it
Caught it on Slashdot. From the original post at BBC:
Scientists around the globe are now working to catalogue all the genes that go wrong in many types of human cancer. The UK is looking at breast cancer, Japan at liver and India at mouth. China is studying stomach cancer, and the US is looking at cancers of the brain, ovary and pancreas.
…scientists from the 10 countries involved say it will take them at least five years and many hundreds of thousands of dollars to complete this mammoth task.
When it comes to immortality (or longevity), the “immortal cell” cannot be the solution. If it were, further reproduction of cells would have to cease; you see, there’s already a known situation where the cells forget to die and reproduce themselves forever, and it’s called a “tumor” or “cancer“.
But even if there was a way around it, that is to say, to make cells immortal, by unblocking the biological mechanisms that order a cell to die, regardless of it’s current condition and then to prevent the existing cells from further reproducing themselves, to avoid tumors, even then, “immortal” would not guarantee “in perfect condition”; the reason is that, in that case, exhausted, damaged or sick cells would never be replaced! “Normal wear” would take its toll… and inevitably… death would come, perhaps even sooner than before!!
Apparently, the cycle of life and death within our bodies also serves the purpose of getting rid of worn-out, replacing them with new ones…
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