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Scenario: Immortality
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The search for, and achievement of, eternal life and youth are age-old quests. In Greek mythology, when the goddess Eos fell in love with the mortal Tithonus, she asked Zeus to give Tithonus eternal life—immortality. Her wish was granted, but she forgot to ask for eternal youth as well, ensuring that Tithonus would forever grow old. In this age of genomics research and with the advent of genetic enhancement and cloning, might eternal life and youth be possible?
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Scientists may have recently discovered one of the mysteries of aging, and possibly death, in the nucleus of cells. Every time a chromosome replicates, small pieces of DNA at the start and the end of the original chromosome (called telomeres) are not copied to the new chromosome. This is due to the nature of the DNA replication mechanism in our cells. In cells that replicate, our chromosomes get shorter and shorter. To protect against this gradual dwindling of DNA strands, every cell has a gene that codes for an enzyme called telomerase. This enzyme, which is naturally activated during the embryonic stage in our development, when cells repeatedly divide, can elongate telomeres and prevent the chromosome from shrinking. Telomerase is generally inactive in normal adult tissue. Research suggests that as telomeres diminish, cells in our body become old and die. When telomerase activates, however, certain cells in our body become immortal. For more on telomerase, see Ridley (1999) in the Recommended Resources. |
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