Month: September 2012

Individual cells keep track of generations with the length of their chromosome tails. Every chromosome has a tail, called a telomere , and the telomere gets shorter each time the cell divides. It has been known since the 1960s that short telomeres can make a cell act old and tired. Cells with really short telomeres stop growing … Read more

This is Josh Mitteldorf’s page within the Science Blog Sites. News about health and aging will be covered from the author’s perspective on evolutionary science.  Our bodies do not “wear out” over time, but rather they actively destroy themselves from the inside out, on a genetically programmed schedule.  But that schedule is “plastic” in response to … Read more