X-Message-Number: 10043
Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 10:52:43 +0100
From:  (John de Rivaz)
Subject: Re: Quick fix for aging?

In article: <>  
writes:
> Message #10035
> From: 

> John de Rivaz, among others, has speculated that there cannot be a single 
> gene that actively causes aging, because one would expect occasional
> people to be born without it, or with a defective variety, and these 
> people would have open life span. This argument is not iron-clad. How many
> people are born with a limb number different from 4? (Not stunted limbs,
> but a different number.)

Anne Boleyn had five fingers and a thumb per hand. An absent ageing gene 
therefore may be exceedlingly rare, but not impossible. 

> Conceivably, some genes are so fundamental to the species that living
> specimens lacking the gene are almost impossible. 

That is to say that if it exists the ageing gene is essential to some other 
life process, possibly the supression of cancer - ie death is a side effect 
of life, at least in the human example of a biological self maintaining 
system!

But again the word "almost" appears .. with an appreciable fraction of the 
people who ever lived being alive today at this time, "almost" means that 
there could be one or two exceptions here present.

-- 
Sincerely,     * Longevity Report:  http://www.longevb.demon.co.uk/lr.htm
John de Rivaz  * Fractal Report:    http://www.longevb.demon.co.uk/fr.htm
**************** Homepage:http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JohndeR
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        because giving information does not decrease your information.

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