Nudie subterranean rat protein could arrest human ageing US boffins believe they may be on the track of longevity-enhancing technology, by analysing the unusual proteins found in naked mole rats. These wrinkly, hairless burrowing creatures from East Africa live many times longer than other rodents, and remain attractive, fit and virile the whole time. MIT Tech Review reports on the …
Quote: live many times longer than other rodents, and remain attractive, fit and virile the whole time
These rats are unique in the sense that they are the only mammal to have a hive society. The "queen" does. The "workers", soldiers, etc do not. They also obey the queen unquestionably, defend it from any danger and behave the way ants and termites do with regards to their hormonal overlord. They are also kept totally sterile.
So frankly, this research has a possible different angle. The proteins that provide this long age may in fact be the proteins which also guarantee the soldiers and workers submissive behaviour and their guaranteed sterility.
For some reason when reading this "This Perfect Day" by Ira Levin comes to mind.
Brown and his ilk will extend the pension age! FFS, I'd be working till I'm about 500 - Time to see man on Mars. Or, Gatso's obsolete. Yeah, I can dream.
(Apart from the fact I'm on the Jerry Roll, and wouldn't mind staying that way for the next 10 years until I retire...)
(Maybe, just maybe that's why cats have nine lives - they eat the buggers. Betcha the 'Merkin boffins didn't fuctor that into the tests..)
You know this is getting a little silly.
So I'm thinking of releasing a paper entitled:
"Incredibly long and interminably boringly titled papers and why we should work towards finding a way of describing the content of an otherwise tedious paper in a way that can not only be pronounced without taking a day off work to do so but also doesn't require you to draw breath a second time halfway through to avoid suffocation - in human beings."
Can't we just have "Naked Mole Rats and Human Longevitiy" ?!
-- Richard
>"These wrinkly, hairless burrowing creatures from East Africa live many times longer than other rodents, and remain attractive, fit and virile the whole time."
Yiff in hell, furf- ... oh. Wait a minute. *Naked* mole rats. No fur.
Now I don't know *what* to call you!
(USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)
I should think naked mole rats are quite attractive to other naked mole rats. And they don't all mate, anyway, living as they do in a termite-like society with a queen. The asexual ones probably aren't that fussed either way.
The naked mole rat is also distinguished in nature by being the greatest comedy animal ever. You can keep your badgers.
> "I should think naked mole rats are quite attractive to other naked mole rats"
Well yes, but it was Lewis who said it, and he didn't suggest he'd been out *interviewing* any mole-rats, so it can't have been /their/ opinion.
Greatest comedy animal ever? What about the Tasmanian devil or the Road Runner? You can even get a lot of laughs out of a hippo, as long as it's dropping from a sufficiently great height.
No, *you* are wrong. The reproductive suppresion is reversible - when a queen dies, one of the other females will take over and become reproductive, so even the workers have the *potential* to be fertile right up until they die. This is quite different from the haplodiploid mechanism of Hymenopterans, where the workers are genetically incapable of breeding.
NMRs really are one of the most fascinating creatures, second only to the babelfish in their usefulness in the "There is no God" argument.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
