The rise in modern human life expectancy is one of the crowning achievements of the scientific revolution. Throughout the world, life expectancy has increased exponentially over the last two hundred years directly due to technologies such as refrigeration, sewage, clean water, fertilizers, indoor living, antibiotics, and vaccinations. Through these technologies, we began to insulate ourselves… Continue reading Hormesis
Category: Aging
Only Entropy Comes Easy
Approximately five hundred years ago, the North African polymath, Ibn-Khaldun, observed that “the goal of civilization is sedentary culture and luxury. When civilization reaches that goal, it turns towards corruption and starts being senile, as happens in the natural life of living beings.” The analogous natural history of socially constructed civilizations and the biologically constructed… Continue reading Only Entropy Comes Easy
Evolution is Cleverer Than You
Aging or senescence is defined as the “progressive, generalized impairment of function, resulting in a loss of adaptive response to stress.” The desire to overcome this seemingly inevitable decline is as old as human consciousness. There are ancient stories abound speaking to the quest for immortality. The ever illusive elixir of life restores the youth of anyone… Continue reading Evolution is Cleverer Than You
Fountain of Youth
Maximum lifespan is defined as the maximum number of time members of a species have been observed to live. According to the Hebrew Bible, Methuselah lived until the age of 969. More contemporaneously, Jeanne Calment, holds the distinction for the longest recorded human lifespan of 122 years. When she was born in 1875, the germ theory of… Continue reading Fountain of Youth
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