i just watched a channel 4 programme called “do you want to live forever”, about Aubrey de Grey, he who believes that humans are able to live almost indefinitely. There wasn’t much science on offer, but plenty of argument from scientists. Having read “sex, power, & suicide”, as mentioned previously, i did notice that one of his 7 basic methods of extending life did go against what i had understood as necessary for mitochondria. This being that Aubrey wants to transfer the DNA from mitochodria to the nucleus, thus better protecting it in a histone layer (something that mitochondria lack). However, the way in which mitochodira regulate energy output seems to require this seperation. such things were not addressed in this show, and i’d be interested to hear what he would have to say. what was interesting, however, was that most shots of Aubrey involved a pint of beer. I particularly like this quote from him:
beer works well for me. some people, well you know, they shouldn’t drink too much. i have the right genes for beer, and drinking beer in the mornings does me no harm at all. what is it now? it’s only ten to ten in the morning and i’m on my third pint of the day, and that’s fine . . . for me.
later the journalist calls the faculty only to find Aubrey no longer works there. His boss explains that Aubrey was employed only as a computer technician and that he was fed up having him claim to be a biologist there. None of this means he’s wrong, of course.
Clearly Audrey is a nutter and you have done the modern-day equivalent of purchasing an elixir for more than just it’s colour. He won’t be coming back to your village for a while, so best to calm yourself knowing that his horse droppings are nonetheless helping your vegetable patch along.
Comment by imo — February 9, 2007 @ 12:15 am
I was also disappointed by the lack of science in the documentary, but what can you expect from a tv documentary?
“However, the way in which mitochodira regulate energy output seems to require this seperation”
Care to elaborate? The concept of allotopic expression has been around for over a decade, and though there have been a few hypotheses on essential roles for the mitochondrial DNA, I’m not aware of any experimental evidence for them. A quick look at Aubrey’s website will show that he has considered this possibility but has good reasons for dismissing it (http://www.sens.org/HH-CDH-PP.pdf).
Comment by Mark — February 20, 2007 @ 4:01 pm
Thank you for your interesting post!
I thought perhaps you may also find this related story interesting to you:
Longevity Science: SENS
http://longevity-science.blogspot.com/2007/01/sens.html
Comment by Dr. Leonid Gavrilov, Ph.D. — April 20, 2007 @ 4:24 am