Negligible senescence, what a wonderful thing! Doesn't have the same ring to it as immortality, but still.
It seems some species hardly age at all, living for hundreds of years or even millennia. "More specifically," says Wikipedia, "negligibly senescent organisms do not have measurable reductions in their reproductive capability with age, or measurable functional decline with age."
So there are clams (the quahogs: there's a word to scrabble with) and turtles and tortoises that live for hundreds of years, and can still have fun copulating (or whatever passes for copulation in a clam) after several centuries. Of course, we don't know if they have as much fun as before.
And then there are jellyfish, and hydra, and aspen trees. Some species of jellyfish are virtually immortal, because of transdifferentiation, it seems. Hydra, which are very small of course, and pretty sessile, just keep on living forever. And although individual aspen can die, the root system keeps pushing up new ones. There's an aspen colony like this in Utah that is 80,000 years old!
It seems some species hardly age at all, living for hundreds of years or even millennia. "More specifically," says Wikipedia, "negligibly senescent organisms do not have measurable reductions in their reproductive capability with age, or measurable functional decline with age."
So there are clams (the quahogs: there's a word to scrabble with) and turtles and tortoises that live for hundreds of years, and can still have fun copulating (or whatever passes for copulation in a clam) after several centuries. Of course, we don't know if they have as much fun as before.
And then there are jellyfish, and hydra, and aspen trees. Some species of jellyfish are virtually immortal, because of transdifferentiation, it seems. Hydra, which are very small of course, and pretty sessile, just keep on living forever. And although individual aspen can die, the root system keeps pushing up new ones. There's an aspen colony like this in Utah that is 80,000 years old!
No comments:
Post a Comment