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While the issue of aging and DNA methylation is an area that is well-studied, modifications of DNA to reduce or reverse aging remains an area in need of exploration. Studies in mice utilizing interventions such as caloric restriction and the drug rapamycin have reversed and/or slowed age-related DNA methylation by up to 40%. Understanding the cross-species aging based on similar DNA behaviors may open more doors to investigating therapeutics to minimize lifetime risks of age-related illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease and cancers.


A recent study published in Cell Systems sought to debunk one of the most common myths about dogs: much to our surprise, one “dog year” does not equal seven “human years.” As described in a recent Forbes piece by Sara Tabin, the relationship between dog years and human years is not linear, but is based on a logarithmic formula. The research group, based at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), created the formula as follows:

Age in human years = 16 ln(age in dog years) +31. (ln means “natural logarithm).

Japan boasts one of the longest life expectancies on earth, and it also a world leader in “healthy life expectancy”—the number of years of good health people can expect on average. Since diet is believed to play a key role in a population’s health and longevity, researchers around the world have been studying the benefits of the Japanese diet for some time now.

But what exactly is the Japanese diet? The people of Japan do not dine primarily on sushi, tempura, or other well-known Japanese specialties. Moreover, their eating habits have changed over the years. For our research, we used national surveys to compile weekly menus representative of the Japanese diet at various points in time over the past half century. In the following, we will take a look at the comparative health effects of these menus.


The health benefits of Japanese cooking are widely touted, but what exactly is a healthy Japanese diet? Food scientists in Japan have homed in on the nutritional keys to health and longevity, and their conclusions may bode ill for the younger generation.

Posthuman Buddhism isn’t restricted to human-era schools or traditions, These (previously unpublished) tsakli are from all Vajrapani schools. Unlike Eastern cultures, in the West we do not require a “Guru” and tsakli can be used for “self-initiation”. Unlike religions that make truth claims for supernatural beings or impossible events, Buddhism sees any deities (peaceful or wrathful) as self-originating. The future surely lies with psychomorphological approaches that are amenable to — and not contradictory — to science.


This new book, 4 in the series, contains fourteen rare and unusual C17th or C18th “Grande Tsaklis”, another four late C18th examples reportedly originating from Tsurphu monastry, plus two extremely large tsakli (giants in tsakli terms) one depicting a wind horse whilst the other shows a figure in historically early clothes with butterlamp, male and female deer and an elephant, C16th to C18th. All fronts and reverse (texts) of tsakli are shown.

These 13 plus (1 from different series of the grandes tsakli) detail rituals to be performed at certain times of the year that promote longevity and ward off evil influences. Astrological and various motifs and ritual implements are shown in the compartments, and crucial text is in the triangles. Some have damage (below missing top part of red border). All 20 are rare.

The four Tsurphu monastery originating long or grand tsakli are also compartmentalized but of a different style, and are perhaps 100 years younger, late C18th, imo. They have intricate feathered text patterns on reverse (see below). These text (eagle) wings of the Garuda bird-headed deity reflect paintings of Garudu whhich feature in top sections of all fronts. These four grand tsakli are quite dark in normal light (one with slight burn mark on reverse) and so I have digitally enhanced the brightness (mostly I don’t much digitally enhance the tsakli images).

For the first time, scientists have introduced minuscule tracking devices directly into the interior of mammalian cells, giving an unprecedented peek into the processes that govern the beginning of development. This work on one-cell embryos is set to shift our understanding of the mechanisms that underpin cellular behaviour in general, and may ultimately provide insights into what goes wrong in ageing and disease.

The research, led by Professor Tony Perry from the Department of Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Bath, involved injecting a silicon-based nanodevice together with sperm into the egg cell of a mouse. The result was a healthy, fertilised egg containing a tracking device.

The tiny devices are a little like spiders, complete with eight highly flexible ‘legs’. The legs measure the ‘pulling and pushing’ forces exerted in the cell interior to a very high level of precision, thereby revealing the cellular forces at play and showing how intracellular matter rearranged itself over time.

Want to learn how we age and whether we can slow or even reverse aging? David Sinclair, PhD, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, says in his book “Lifespan” that aging is a disease, and that disease is treatable. Tune in to Homeroom with Sal on Tuesday at noon PT to get your questions answered by a leading expert on aging and age-associated diseases.

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Aging/longevity link!


Molecular biologists and bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have unraveled key mechanisms behind the mysteries of aging. They isolated two distinct paths that cells travel during aging and engineered a new way to genetically program these processes to extend lifespan.

The research is described July 17 in the journal Science.

Our lifespans as humans are determined by the aging of our individual . To understand whether different cells age at the same rate and by the same cause, the researchers studied aging in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a tractable model for investigating mechanisms of aging, including the aging paths of skin and .

New insights into an elusive process that protects developing sperm cells from damage in growing embryos, sheds light on how genetic information passes down, uninterrupted, through generations.

The study identified a protein, known as SPOCD1, which plays a key role in protecting the early-stage precursors to sperm, known as , from damage in a developing embryo.

During their development, germ cells undergo a reprogramming process that leaves them vulnerable to rogue genes, known as jumping genes, which can damage their DNA and lead to infertility.