Could she be the key to the fountain of youth?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
BVS

BVS

Blue Crack Supplier
Joined
Aug 19, 2002
Messages
41,232
Location
between my head and heart
Scientists are hoping to gain new insights into the mysteries of ageing by sequencing the genome of a 17-year-old girl who has the body and behaviour of a tiny toddler.

Brooke Greenberg is old enough to drive a car and next year will be old enough to vote — but at 16lb in weight and just 30in tall, she is still the size of a one-year-old.

Until recently she had been regarded as a medical oddity but a preliminary study of her DNA has suggested her failure to grow could be linked to defects in the genes that make the rest of humanity grow old.

If confirmed, the research could give scientists a fresh understanding of ageing and even suggest new therapies for diseases linked to old age.
Click to expand...

Girl frozen in time may hold key to ageing - Times Online
 
But she has also suffered a succession of life-threatening health problems, including strokes, seizures, ulcers and breathing difficulties — almost as if she were growing old despite not growing up.
Click to expand...

That's the tipoff, right there. More dumb media reporting about shit they don't understand. Does anyone think a 17 year old 'baby' is in fact a baby?

“Just possibly it could give us an opportunity to answer the question of why we are mortal.”
Click to expand...

Don't even know where to start with that one.

I truly wonder if they aren't barking up the wrong tree altogether with this one. Aren't robust centenarians - a not undocumented group - a more relevant sample for this kind of thing?
 
Kieran McConville said:
That's the tipoff, right there. More dumb media reporting about shit they don't understand. Does anyone think a 17 year old 'baby' is in fact a baby?
Click to expand...

Well, I think this is understandable given the fact that you are exposing 17 years of life and wear on a body that wasn't designed to do so. I don't think anyone is arguing the fact if she is indeed a baby or not...

But, it is facinating that something as simple as her baby teeth being able to last 17 years.

It's a sad yet intriguing story at the same time.
 
There was a special on her on the Discovery Health Channel the other night.

Why can't people just age gracefully? It seems to me that this is more about her cosmetic aspect than actual organ repair or cures or whatever.

Anyway, I had to turn it off. I can't watch stories like this for too long. We get kids in here all the time who are more helpless than a newborn and it just gets me in a weird mood.
 
People are obsessed with youth because they don't want to die.

Humans are already living way beyond their appropriate life span.

Perhaps we should spend billions on keeping dogs alive for 25-30 years, with research, special meds, supplements and around the clock care givers.
 
I saw a show a while back that said the secret to prolonged life span is having children later in life. It wont benefit the parent generation, but if filial generations follow suit, the result is a gradual, but significant lengthening of lifespan. At least thats how it works in fruit flies, rats, etc
 
Tiger Edge said:
Why can't people just age gracefully? It seems to me that this is more about her cosmetic aspect than actual organ repair or cures or whatever.
Click to expand...

How is this more about her cosmetic aspect? Every aspect of her is essentially frozen in time, inside and out, yet able to endure for the most part a timeline it wasn't "designed" for...
 
Jive Turkey said:
I saw a show a while back that said the secret to prolonged life span is having children later in life. It wont benefit the parent generation, but if filial generations follow suit, the result is a gradual, but significant lengthening of lifespan. At least thats how it works in fruit flies, rats, etc
Click to expand...

1990
Number of U.S. births to mothers under 20: 533,00
Number of U.S. births to mothers over 35: 368,000

2008
Number of U.S. births to mothers under 20: 441,000
Number of U.S. births to mothers over 35: 603,000

:hmm:

washingtonpost.com
 
BVS said:
How is this more about her cosmetic aspect? Every aspect of her is essentially frozen in time, inside and out, yet able to endure for the most part a timeline it wasn't "designed" for...
Click to expand...

I would be interesting to see her situation on 20, 40, 60, 80 years
 
BVS said:
How is this more about her cosmetic aspect? Every aspect of her is essentially frozen in time, inside and out, yet able to endure for the most part a timeline it wasn't "designed" for...
Click to expand...

But she has also suffered a succession of life-threatening health problems, including strokes, seizures, ulcers and breathing difficulties — almost as if she were growing old despite not growing up.
Click to expand...

What good are her insides then? Normal 16-year-old children don't have these issues. The fact that her organs have remained "small" cannot really help most people, if any because nature has gone as far as it can go from infancy to puberty. There's no lengthening that timeframe.
 
Tiger Edge said:
What good are her insides then? Normal 16-year-old children don't have these issues. The fact that her organs have remained "small" cannot really help most people, if any because nature has gone as far as it can go from infancy to puberty. There's no lengthening that timeframe.
Click to expand...

Do you not think that if one can find the reason for halting development one can be one step closer to finding out how to stop or accelerate development of all sorts of things?

Everything from slowing down the aging process of skin, or accelerating brain development. We don't know, but that's excitement of finding such an anomaly.

This isn't just about "small", small is fairly common, this is about not aging or not developing, this is not common at all. And it's not just about a "fountain of youth", what if this can lead to stop the spreading or development of certain cancers, finding a way to develop the brains of those that are mentally retarded, etc...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

A
the little stranger chapter 3
Replies
0
Views
581
annj
A
A
the little stranger chapter 4
Replies
0
Views
578
annj
A
A
the little stranger chapter 7
Replies
0
Views
570
annj
A
A
The little stranger Chapter 6
Replies
0
Views
553
annj
A
A
The Little stranger chapter 1
Replies
0
Views
983
annj
A

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom