So just curious. Why does our bodies and organs and muscles start deteriorating at a certain point in our lives? And how come some mammals can live to be 300 years old meanwhile others are lucky to live a couple years?
In: Biology
Stem cells are a big part of this. Much like the ship of Theseus your body is constantly replacing itself with new cells.
This copying process has a downside: over time errors get made, and we exhaust our stem cells which in turn reduce the body’s ability to regenerate damaged tissues and maintain organ function.
Another factor around lifespan is body size relative to disease volume. I recall a study/hypothesis around why whales live so long and it was suggested that it’s because the _amount_ of things like cancer relative to their total mass (think % of cells in body) is lower than say a human. In addition to any variance in say, stem cell reservoirs.
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