Aging Matters
Meditations on “infinity” (with apologies for taking liberties in the Holiday spirit) Les deux infinis Infinity has at least two meanings. We sometimes forget that the word is used very differently in math and in science, and we conflate the two. For the mathematician, infinity is an abstraction with a pure and definite meaning, with some … Read more
In the news this week was a huge British study in The Lancet about longevity trends worldwide. The headlines were about the admirable progress that our world is making toward fewer avoidable deaths in the underdeveloped world. Life expectancy there is going up, for reasons that have nothing to do with aging. The secondary headline: Life … Read more
The best theory we have for the evolution of aging says that bearing children should shorten your life span. The best theory is wrong. Current Evolutionary Theory Here’s the surprise from genetic research in the 1990s that changed the way evolutionary scientists think about aging: Aging takes place under control of an intricate regulatory system, … Read more
There’s a social stigma attached to being fat, a cultural prejudice that is utterly unfair. It makes no distinction between those who are lax about their diet and those whose metabolisms incline them toward obesity even when they eat moderately. But Mother Nature is more equitable. She distributes the gift of longevity not according to … Read more