“This research gives us hope not only for increasing longevity, but also for lengthening the period of adult vitality, and doing this with simple drugs such as antibiotics,” concludes Auwerx.

Why is it that within a homogeneous population of the same species, some individuals live three times as long as others?

EPFL researchers investigated this question and found the mechanism responsible for aging hidden deep within mitochondria.

The were able to dramatically slow aging down in worms by administering antibiotics to the young, achieving a lifespan extension of 60 percent.

Mitochondia: biological timekeepers

The aging process identified by EPFL scientists takes place within organelles called mitochondria, known as the cellular powerhouses because they transform nutrients into proteins including adenosine triphosphate (ATP), used by muscles as energy.

Several studies have shown that mitochondria are also involved in aging. The new EPFL research, done in collaboration with partners in the Netherlands and the U.S., pinpoints the exact genes involved and measures the consequences to longevity when the amount of protein they encode for is varied: less protein, longer life.

Natural variations in mice

Laboratory mice in the BXD reference population typically live from 365 to 900 days. This population, which reflects genetic variations that occur naturally within a species, is used by many researchers in an approach known as “real-world genetics.” The benefit of working with this population in particular is that their genome is almost completely decoded.

The team led by professor Auwerx, head of EPFL’s Laboratory of Integrative and Systemic Physiology, analyzed mice genomes as a function of longevity and found a group of three genes situated on chromosome number two that, up to this point, had not been suspected of playing any role in aging. But the numbers didn’t lie: a 50 percent reduction in the expression of these genes — and therefore a reduction in the proteins they code for — increased mouse life span by about 250 days.

Extending life in worms

Next, the team reproduced the protein variations in a species of nematode, Caenorhabidtis elegans. “By reducing the production of these proteins during the worms’ growth phase, we significantly increased their longevity”, says Auwerx.

The average life span of a worm manipulated in this way went from 19 to more than 30 days, an increase of 60 percent. The scientists then conducted tests to isolate the common property and determined that the presence of mitochondrial ribosomal proteins (MRPs) is inversely proportional to longevity.

Click link to read full article;

http://www.kurzweilai.net/slowing-the-aging-process-using-only-antibiotics

Posted By F. Sheikh

Glossary of the Fundamentals of “Force”

Gravity the macroscopic dominant attractive force, equation:                         , permeated by theoretical gravitons (G), created by the presence of quarks (u, d, c, s, t, b),  gluons (g_1…6 ), and the Higgs field (H⁰).

Electromagnetism the force at least 10¹⁵ x as effective as gravity, equations: , , , , permeated by photons ( ), created by the existence of electrons (e^–), muons ( ), taus ( ), and their neutrino counterparts.

Weak nuclear force transformation of a down quark (d) to an up quark (u), an electron/positron (e­­^±), and a neutrino (ν).

Strong nuclear force the strongest force, equation: , permeated by gluons (g_1…6 ), created by the existence of quarks (u, d, c, s, t, b).

Roumaan Ahmad Kidwai

426 Bailey Road

Paramus NJ 07652

5/17/2013

What If We Never Run Out of Oil? By Charles Mann

New technology and a little-known energy source suggest that fossil fuels may not be finite. This would be a miracle—and a nightmare.

“In the 1970s, geologists discovered crystalline natural gas—methane hydrate, in the jargon—beneath the seafloor. Stored mostly in broad, shallow layers on continental margins, methane hydrate exists in immense quantities; by some estimates, it is twice as abundant as all other fossil fuels combined. Despite its plenitude, gas hydrate was long subject to petroleum-industry skepticism. These deposits—water molecules laced into frigid cages that trap “guest molecules” of natural gas—are strikingly unlike conventional energy reserves. Ice you can set on fire! Who could take it seriously? But as petroleum prices soared, undersea-drilling technology improved, and geological surveys accumulated, interest rose around the world. The U.S. Department of Energy has been funding a methane-hydrate research program since 1982.”

“But it has also unleashed so much petroleum(Petroleum is a grab-bag term for all nonsolid hydrocarbon resources—oil of various types, natural gas, propane, oil precursors, and so on—that companies draw from beneath the Earth’s surface. The stuff that catches fire around stove burners is known by a more precise term, natural gas, referring to methane, a colorless, odorless gas that has the same chemical makeup no matter what the source—ordinary petroleum wells, shale beds, or methane hydrate.) in North America that the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based consortium of energy-consuming nations, predicted in November that by 2035, the United States will become “all but self-sufficient in net terms.” If the Chikyu researchers are successful, methane hydrate could have similar effects in Japan. And not just in Japan: China, India, Korea, Taiwan, and Norway are looking to unlock these crystal cages, as are Canada and the United States.”

“If methane hydrate allows much of the world to switch from oil to gas, the conversion would undermine governments that depend on oil revenues, especially petro-autocracies like Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. Unless oil states are exceptionally well run, a gush of petroleum revenues can actually weaken their economies by crowding out other business. Worse, most oil nations are so corrupt that social scientists argue over whether there is an inherent bond—a “resource curse”—between big petroleum deposits and political malfeasance. It seems safe to say that few Americans would be upset if a plunge in demand eliminated these countries’ hold over the U.S. economy. But those same people might not relish the global instability—a belt of financial and political turmoil from Venezuela to Turkmenistan—that their collapse could well unleash.”

Click link for full article.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/05/what-if-we-never-run-out-of-oil/309294/?single_page=true

( Posted by F. Sheikh )