Pilnmēness nogurdinātie - For the 4th of July, on the 5th of July.

From: begemots Date: 6. Jūlijs 2011 - 18:53 (Link)

> It's interesting though, that no living creature lives forever - that the potential causes of our death are there in the DNA of all living organisms from the start.
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Well, first of all, I do believe I have read not very long ago about some creatures (I think it was a type of fish or shark) that are currently believed to be able to theoretically live on forever, barring enemies and disasters. Might've been some type of shark, they apparently have a terrific immune system.

Secondly, the potential causes of our death are indeed frequently in our DNA: each strand of DNA in each of our cells, as I was surprised to learn, is around 6 feet long and contains 3000 million genes (aka letters). One particular letter goes wrong, and bang, you got sickle-cell anaemia.

However, the point that sharks (or other semi-eternal fish or creatures) seem to bring about is that it is not _neccessary_ that we should have this limitation of living with detoriating bodies.

I do believe we are quite close to collapse finding how to improve our genetic system in ways that could give us longer lifespans without the unpleasant effects of old age. Smarter immune systems, better secondary chains of command, it seems we could achieve these things at least in lab in our lifetime, DNA-preserve-us!

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