Aging Matters
How do you tell if an osteoporosis treatment is working? Stress-testing your femur until it breaks is not an option most patients would accept. “Bone Mineral Density” (BMD) measurements have been the classical surrogate measurement to tell if a drug is working. But then it was discovered that Fosamax increases BMD, but in the long … Read more
Evolution has bootstrapped its own process, creating the conditions that lead to more efficient evolution. Some biologists find this surprising, but it has undoubtedly occurred. Among the traits that lead to more efficient evolution is aging. Is this the basis on which aging has evolved? This is a theory that several biologists have promoted. I … Read more
Darwin’s prescription for evolution involved just blind variation + natural selection as if evolution were inevitable and all that was required was a collection of objects that are able to reproduce themselves imperfectly. We know now that it is not at all inevitable. The mode of variation is crucially important to making evolution possible. Some … Read more
In the 21st Century, we live in a sea of radio waves. No one wants to think that this might have consequences for our health – there are enough things to worry about that are more within our power to change. We get plenty of encouragement not to think about the subject from the news … Read more
Aging destroys fitness. How could aging have evolved? Below is my answer to this question. This is mainstream science from peer-reviewed journals [Ref 1, Ref 2, Ref 3] , but it is my science, and as Richard Feynman warned us*, I’m the last one who can be objective about the merits of this theory. Too fit … Read more