X-Message-Number: 22668
Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2003 09:36:51 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #22636 - #22643

Hi everyone!

A few comments:

1. I too am not taken by all the concern with CO2. However if we go
   back far enough in the Earth's history the level of CO2 THEN 
   is likely to bear little relation to the climate NOW. The reason
   is simple: the Sun, just like all other main sequence stars,
   slowly increases in brightness with age. Higher levels of CO2
   may have helped the Earth maintain a similar temperature to its
   temperature now, and thus support life... as it does now. 

2. With regard to Bill Warner's proposal and the recent discovery of
   ways to prevent cell's from losing their ability to divide:
   before we consider such events as major steps in our deterioration
   into old age and death, we must first establish that they ARE
   such major steps. To speak simply, other hormonal changes may
   first occur and kill us, before any direct issues of cell division 
   play any role. If we don't deal with THOSE, then how well our
   cells divide becomes irrelevant. Not only that, but our aging 
   probably results from a complex interplay of different factors.
   Our hormonal breakdown may block cell division by preventing the
   renewal of telomeres (just as an instance of how things MIGHT
   be related).

   If we want to deal with our aging, the best strategy is to use
   those drugs and treatments which are already known to increase
   lifespans while simultaneously working to understand, first, how
   our body comes to age. Calorie restriction and the efforts to
   understand how it works and duplicate it without limiting what
   we eat gives an example ... and one which will increase our 
   lifespans, even if it does not completely eliminate aging. There
   are also a number of drugs which have been shown to increase
   lifespan, not in fruitflies or worms but in normal healthy mammals.
   These are generally rats and mice ... for no special reason other
   than that rats and mice live for a short enough time to make such
   experiments practical. And examination of these experiments 
   often does NOT suggest that the drugs only improve health without
   increasing maximum lifespan. (Yes, I am disagreeing with those
   who argue that this result comes out statistically --- in some
   experiments).

                Best wishes and long long life for all,

                      Thomas Donaldson

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