Gerontology research comes of age

Article Abstract:

Even though life expectancy has doubled (to the age of 80) in the past 125 years, lengthening it further will probably only occur when more secrets are revealed at the molecular level. And it is at just this target that many current research efforts are aimed: the National Institutes of Aging's budget for aging research in 1991 represented a 35 percent increase over the budget for the previous year, by far the greatest increase of any other institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Researchers now feel closer to understanding the differences between normal aging and disease, aided by recent theories that see aging as a passive process resulting from normal metabolic events. That these events are so numerous is what gives the field its phenomenal complexity. Some fixed points can be found: cells in tissue culture have a finite life-span, and researchers try to understand the changes that occur throughout this period. One hypothesis, the ''garbage can'' idea, holds that the aging cell becomes a repository of damaging metabolic by-products. One prime candidate for cell despoiler is the oxygen free radical, a reactive form of oxygen with an extra electron. These molecules damage cell membranes and are more easily eliminated by enzymes when cells are young. Glucose, which can produce a chain of reactions leading to damaging advanced glycosylation end products (AGEs), could also be a culprit. Genes appear to play a role in longevity, too: in 20 different species, faster metabolic rates are associated with greater production of cellular garbage. Animal models of aging have been developed (discussed in a companion article in the November 2, 1990 issue of Science). When experiments on cells grown in culture focus on cell proliferation, aging research starts to merge with cancer research. Work on Werner's syndrome (a disorder of early aging) has found excessive amounts of collagen and fibronectin in cells from people with the disorder. Perhaps genes in old and young cells are regulated differently. Immune system cells may be a good model for aging, since so much is known concerning their regulation and they, too, age. Pharmaceutical companies are attracted to gerontology because the vast number of cellular processes that could be regulated guarantee a market for many, many products. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Aging, Models, Molecular biology, Gerontology

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Claim-jumping charges ignite controversy at meeting

Article Abstract:

Ethiopian archaeologist Sileshi Semaw publically accused Institute of Human Origins researchers of encroaching on his team's Ethiopian Gona River region site and stealing fossils. The dispute may be due to excavation sites granted by the Ethiopian government that may overlap.

Investigations, Ethiopia, Excavations (Archaeology), Science and ethics, Scientific ethics, Semaw, Sileshi, Institute of Human Origins

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Archaeologists rediscover cannibals

Article Abstract:

Research by Christy G, Turner II, William Arens, and others is leading a trend toward reexamination of possible cannibalism in several prehistoric societies. Cannibalism may have existed in Mexico and Fiji as recently as 2500 years ago.

Ethnology, Cannibalism, Cannibalism (Human behavior), Cultural anthropology

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