New Study Examines Evolutionary Explanations For Biological Immortality

FLORA AND FAUNA

Washington DC (SPX) Dec 06, 2005
Though getting older may seem inevitable, a major new study from the forthcoming issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology examines the point in human life when your body simply stops aging.

"For decades, demographers and gerontologists noticed that late life human data did not fit [expected] models: there was a shortage of deaths," write Michael R. Rose, Casandra L. Rauser, and Laurence D. Mueller. "More specifically, the exponential increase in age-specific death rate seemed to slow down considerably, if not cease."

The sudden plateau in mortality rates after a certain age has long been observed with other organisms, but its presence in human populations has been dismissed as a result of the advent of nursing homes and modern medicine. However, close examination of demographic data supports a distinct third phase of life history known as "late life," characterized by the cessation of age-related deterioration.

"Late life is a unique and distinct phase of life very different from aging," write the authors. "Each phase evolves according to very different rules. Evolutionary biology has a new set of problems to solve."

The authors posit that late life arises after the forces of natural selection affecting both fertility and mortality cease to have an impact.

Rose, Michael R., Casandra L. Rauser, Laurence D. Mueller. "Late Life: A New Frontier for Physiology." Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 78:6.

FLORA AND FAUNA

New Bacterial Genome Sequenced From Ancient Salterns

Rockville MD (SPX) Dec 06, 2005
Tourists in Spain often stop to ogle the country's many saltwater lagoons, used to produce salt since Roman times. Scientists, too, admire these saltern crystallizers�and even more so, the microbes that manage to survive in such briny environs.

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