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Partial Reversal of Aging Achieved in Mice

Researchers led by Harvard Medical School geneticist Ronald A. DePinho have managed to partially reverse the physical degeneration that results from aging:

[...] they achieved the milestone in aging science by engineering mice with a controllable telomerase gene. The telomerase enzyme maintains the protective caps called telomeres that shield the ends of chromosomes.

As humans age, low levels of telomerase are associated with progressive erosion of telomeres, which may then contribute to tissue degeneration and functional decline in the elderly. By creating mice with a telomerase switch, the researchers were able to generate prematurely aged mice. The switch allowed the scientists to find out whether reactivating telomerase in the animals would restore telomeres and mitigate the signs and symptoms of aging. The work showed a dramatic reversal of many aspects of aging, including reversal of brain disease and infertility.


Link via Gizmodo | Photo (unrelated) by Flickr user woodly wonder works used under Creative Commons license

Comments (3)

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Sucks for those of us who were born without a modified 'immortality' genes. Man, wouldn't that just make the new round of children so much more obnoxious!

As it is, for now we'll just make do with oscillating mice.

I wonder if the mice's memories are erased? As in the smoothing of brain wrinkles, etc?
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I see it ending much like the novel Glory Road where all those who are now "immortal" must pay a tax to keep living. Though hopefully it will end up more like the rest of Heinlein's series and we will have a Lazarus Long to help guide us.
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Well, see; You turn the handle up there and it turns this handle here, and the other handle, uh... No, that's the one you hold there and it... Wait, give me a hand here. You hold that while I... Hey, what's that adjusting thing there? Go ahead and try it... Doh! Now you've messed it up, see? It'll never work now!

Better Idiot, med.
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Down on the farm toothpaste was ordered via the Sears Catalog, and was a luxury item. Back when people brushed their teeth once a week whether they needed it or not, this was also sold in the catalog as a toothpaste tube squeezer so you could get every last drip.

Unpredictable Swing Voter small
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When television was first invented, lazy people were begging for a way to change the channel when they didn't have kids around to do it for them. Early developers considered the use of multiple connecting handles the best way to keep the television controller functional in different seating situations.

Unfortunately, the lazy culture of the time found these controllers too complicated to master, and decided to just keep the children home from school and available to turn the set on and off or change the channel for them. This is why most adults in this country can barely read or write or think for themselves.

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It's ironic that should show up here. It was designed for the Writer's Workshop of Ashville, NC. It was used in a class as the McGuffin for a story to be made up on the spot, and thus is known as a "hack saw."

Unpredictable Swing Voter (Small Natural)
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This is a Japanese torpedo winder from WW2. You know when those torpedos are shot in all the war movies? THey never how you scenes of the sailors laboriously winding up the little propellers. The US navy were the first to have electric torpedo winders, although early in the war they malfunctioned and wound them the wrong way so they ran backwards and sometimes hit our own subs. Today's submarines come with pre-wound torpedoes.

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It's a handlizer, produced by DARPA in 1979 as inspired by the writings of Dr. Seuss. It's three levers that, when turned or pulled, simply move another lever.

"If I'm talking, you should be taking notes" royal blue men's M
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