Universal mortality law and immortality

Mark Ya. Azbel'

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2004, vol. 341, issue C, 629-637

Abstract: Well-protected human and laboratory animal populations with abundant resources are evolutionarily unprecedented. Physical approach, which takes advantage of their extensively quantified mortality, establishes that its dominant fraction yields the exact law, which is universal for all animals from yeast to humans. Singularities of the law demonstrate new kinds of stepwise adaptation. The law proves that universal mortality is an evolutionary by-product, which at any given age is reversible, independent of previous life history, and disposable. Life expectancy may be extended, arguably to immortality, by minor biological amendments in the animals. Indeed, in nematodes with a small number of perturbed genes and tissues it increased 6-fold (to 430 years in human terms), with no apparent loss in health and vitality. The law relates universal mortality to specific processes in cells and their genetic regulation.

Keywords: Universal biological law; Lifespan; Immortality; Evolution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:341:y:2004:i:c:p:629-637

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2004.06.065

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