The big determinant seems to be extrinsic mortality: the risk of dying of something *other* than old age. For instance, Daphnia that live in temporary ponds (which die when the pond dries up) have shorter lifespans in the lab than Daphnia that live in permanent lakes.
Also, inducing hypothyroidism in rats (which lowers their metabolic rate) makes them live 30% longer. http://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1016/0047-6374(86)90052-7 …
-
-
Genetic differences between short- and long-lived strains of similar species could point the way towards mechanisms to delay aging in humans. I don't expect simply lowering metabolism to be a good trade-off, but there may be other resilience mechanisms that we could "borrow."
Show this thread -
The "bad" news is that humans are already pretty K-selected; we may already have most of the long-life adaptations we see in other animals. (Though it's worth doing a lot more comparative genomics to find out!)
Show this thread -
The "good" news is that evidence is accumulating all over the place that aging rates respond to evolutionary incentives. Any knob that Evolution can turn, Man can in principle learn to turn.
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.