From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Tue Dec 10 2002 - 14:51:29 MST
> (Rafal Smigrodzki <rms2g@virginia.edu>):
> Joao wrote:
>
> > I've read your NHEJ-based theory before. I'll tell why I'm not
> > convinced by your theory and I'll tell you why I don't think free
> > radicals cause aging either. Life has billions of years on earth,
> > having to face UV, background nuclear radiation, free radicals, etc.
> > I would say life had enough time to develop protections against these
> > common sources of damage and, equally important, life had enough time
> > to develop mechanisms to repair the damage--DNA repair mechanisms are
> > the perfect example.
>
> ### Since toothy predators have been around for hundreds of millions of
> years, one might expect that life should have found a way of protecting
> itself from their depredations. The conclusion is that tigers do not cause
> death.
Rabbit genes /did/ find a solution to wolves: breed faster. That
solution does little good for the individual rabbit, however.
Evolution found solutions for radiation and free radical damage:
produce the germ-line cells early on in the reproduction cycle,
protect them, and find mechanisms to reject damaged ones. This
works quite well, but is similarly useless to the host.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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