If I had to start giving up things in my life, cable TV would have to be way down on the list. At least half of the channels my family watches, happen to cable channels. I mean, I am a huge fan of network TV and G grew up watching Public TV, but cable is where it's at.
The newest channel to make the list is the Science Channel. Super geeky, I know. G would rather watch the Science Channel than cartoons most days. I am rather glad, because I like the Science Channel too. That way we are learning, not just being entertained.
One of the shows this past week was called KAPOW! Superhero Science. I sat to watch it with him, because one never knows what will strike him as scary. As I said, I also enjoy learning and it also gives me some background into the questions he will ask M and I. The show compares superhero traits to current abilities in science and technology. The show focused on characters from the X-Men series. Never been a comics/anime kind of girl, so I learned more than science.
One of the segments was addressing the attributes of Wolverine. (Wolverine = Hugh Jackman: there's my extent of X-Men knowledge. Hunky man... yeah, I pay attention at the movie theater.) Apparently one his assets as a superhero is longevity. And that would be Wolverine, not Hugh Jackman, sadly. Wolverine is 120 years old but still in his prime.
Can humans really live longer life spans? Well, science thinks so. According to the show, an expert scientist in the field of longevity has been able to expand the lifespan of fruit flies to 3 times normal. More than 78 days. Wahoo! The show called them "superflies." How did science do this? The waited to harvest fruit fly eggs until the last moment of their reproductive window. The scientist found that over time, waiting until towards the end of the reproductive window eventually produced longer living generations. So, they estimate, in 3,000 years we humans could be living to 200.
Thanks in part to people like me. People who are waiting until they are older to have kids. So, being 35 and pregnant might actually have more of an upside than I thought.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
So we can live longer, but what about quality of life?
Heh. I *almost* went there... but decided not to. Living will certainly have all sorts of impacts on society and quality of living. But then, in 3,000 years, Life will all be different anyhow....
Post a Comment