Why Brithini are like worms

From: ANDOVER_at_delphi.com
Date: Mon, 27 May 1996 23:39:20 -0500 (EST)


From the Science Times, May 21, 1996:
A Worm's Life: Right Mutation Makes it Long But Very Dull

Mutant worms that live five times as long as their normal counterparts are yielding clues to the genetic control of life span -- and lending credence to the idea that one way to live longer might be to live less.

"These animals are as close to immortality as worms can get," said Dr. Siegfried Hekimi, the biologist who bred the long-lived strains at McGill University in Montreal. But, he added, the worms pay a price for their longevity: "They are very lethargic. They're terrible. They just lie there. They are not happy." Even as the lives of worms go, these are dull. In the longest-lived strains of all, Dr. Hekimi said, the males probably do not even have enough energy to mate.

The key both to their sluggishness and their long life is a set of four genes that Dr. Hekimi and his co-author, Dr. Bernard Lakowski, also from McGill, have named "clock genes." Mutant forms of those genes in various combinations slow down "everything that has a time component in worms," Dr. Hekimi said, including cell division, eating, defecating, embryo development and even the speed of swimming. Those genes also slow the aging process; the fivefold increase in longevity among Dr. Hekimi's mutants is the greatest ever recorded in any species.

. . .At this point, researchers doubt that Dr. Hekimi's worms will lead directly to an antidote for human aging. Given the animal's torpor, Dr. McCormick said, "It's not the way I'd want to increase my life span."

I think that this suggests some possibilities for the Brithini -- including slowness in action. Maybe their incredibly tough soldiers should move last in every round, like a zombie? Jim Chapin


End of Glorantha Digest V2 #600


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