Reversing The Aging Process Essay Research Paper

Reversing The Aging Process Essay, Research Paper

Reversing the aging process In the length of time measured as human lifetime one can expect to see a full range of differing events. It is assumed that during a lifetime a person will experience every possible different emotion. If one is particularly lucky, he will bear witness to, or affect some momentous change in humanity. However is it reasonable to ask what would be experienced by someone who lived two lifetimes. Up until recently the previous question would and could only be rhetorical. There is no answer, because no one has ever lived that long. Of course that was up until now. At McGill University, nematodes (tiny organisms) have experienced five lifetimes. Through complex scientific experiments nematodes and fruit flies have had their lifespans increased not by fractions of life times, but by multiples of lifetimes. Mankind is using the discovery of DNA as an opportunity to play G-d by changing the aging process. Man has a natural tendency to play the role of G-d. Man has a an inherent need to affect others, be it through the vises of war, power, manipulation or politics. However man s natural tendency to play G-d has reached it s final manifestation. By attempting to slow down the aging process man is using himself as the ultimate canvas, to play the role of the omnipotent. Research into the process of aging began in 1961. Since then a great deal of time, money and effort have been appropriated into discovering the causes of aging, it can therefore be inferred that humanity has an almost “personal” interest in aging. Of course the culmination of discovering how we age, is discovering how to stop it. An intrinsic characteristic of Man is His obsession with superficiality. Superficiality is equated with appearance. The appearance of beauty can be equated with youth. Therein lies man s obsession with age, ceasing to age means being eternally beautiful. As usual man s actions are dominated by ego and self-preservation. Within the confines of youth there lies a certain fountain of power. Power which cannot be accessed once one ages. Things like physical and sexual prowess. The time of youth is often refereed to as the “prime of your life”. It is therefore not difficult to understand and conceive of man s motivation to stay young and to wish that the immediate people surrounding him stay young. If a mathematician wished to create a formula to describe the life of one man he would say that life is equal to a series of interchangeably quantized, experiences and emotions. With the advent of a retarded aging process, that which we know as life changes. While life is composed if those quantized properties there are a finite amount of them, therefore decelerating the aging process has major implications. First and foremost among them is what to do with all that extra time. In 1900 the average life expectancy of a baby born in the United States was 47 years. Conservative estimates place life expectancy of children born today in the united sates at 76, while less conservative estimates place the life expectancy at 100 years. Presently man is unable to cope with this extra time. Many septuagenarians spend days sitting around doing next to nothing. The term “waiting to die” has been applied in reference to such activities, or rather lack thereof. Even while the average life-span has increased, whose to say that the time added is quality time. Another general comment overheard in the population at large was “what s the point of growing old and having to suffer through ulcers, cataracts, hemorrhoids, and cancer. Isn t it better to die young and healthy then to die old, infirm and brittle.” The essential question being proposed is one of quality versus quantity. Is it better to live for a long time with much of that time spent in dialysis, or is it preferable to enjoy a short but “fun” life. Even if the scientists can cure humanity of the ailments of the elders, there still remains the question of how to manage one s time. “We re bored” has often been used as the battle cry of youth, people who haven t even lived two decades. What are people who have lived twelve decades supposed to do. These questions are stuck in the realm of rhetoric. There are no answers to these questions. It is altogether possible that there never will be. Scientists involved in the dissection of the aging process have made what they believe to be an important discovery. Scientists discovered a small area at the tip of the chromosomes that served no apparent purpose. Dubbed a telomere, this area of the chromosome wasn t responsible for any physiological traits. What was discerned however was that whenever a cell divides to create two new cells each of the daughter cells has less telomere than the mother cell. Once the cell has undergone a maximum number of divisions the telomere was reduced to a stub, exposing genes which initiated proteins that caused the deterioration of the cell. The most applicable analogy would be that of a bomb. The telomere acts as the fuse to the bomb. The fuse is lit from the time of birth, and when the telomerefuse runs out the bomb goes off. Only in this case instead of instantaneous death, the victim succumbs to the equivalent of radiation poisoning. The victims condition is terminal from the start and slowly degrades to the point of death. The conclusion is that life is just a case of terminal death. Or is it. Scientists also discovered an e