Re: Fwd: [evol-psych] Secrets of a longer life

From: phil osborn (philosborn@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun Jul 30 2000 - 23:04:18 MDT


>From: Robin Hanson <rhanson@gmu.edu>
>Subject: Fwd: [evol-psych] Secrets of a longer life
>Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 14:33:32 -0400
>
>>To: <evolutionary-psychology@egroups.com>
>>From: "Ian Pitchford" <ian.pitchford@scientist.com>
>>Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 05:32:27 +0100
>>Subject: [evol-psych] Secrets of a longer life
>>
>> >From New Scientist magazine, 29 July 2000
>>Secrets of a longer life
>>Birds with bigger genomes survive to a ripe old age
>>
>>SIMILAR-sized animals have wildly different genome sizes, but no one has
>>known
>>why. Now researchers from Glasgow University have found that, in birds at
>>least, genome size is related to longevity.
>>
>>In vertebrates, genome size, known as the C-value, varies enormously, from
>>0.4
>>picograms in a pufferfish to 142 pg in the African lungfish. This
>>variation,
>>mainly due to differing amounts of non-coding DNA, seems unrelated to an
>>animal's complexity, a puzzle dubbed the C-value paradox.
>>
>>Full text:
>>http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns224969
>
>
>Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
>Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University
>MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030
>703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323

Some weeks ago I asked if introns might be part of a fingerprint used by the
immune system, perhaps part of a viral defense mechanism. Recently there
was a breakthru in terms of totally new possible AIDS therapy that seems to
imply that my mere speculation may have been right on target. I will try to
find the article and some on-line refs...

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