Julia+S.

Wikipost #1 – Genetics – October 11th 2013
__ Your aging could be genetically passed down from your mother. __

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Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Aging found that aging is determined not only by the damage and mutations to the mitochondrial DNA but also by the genes we acquire from our mothers (Their own mutated mitochondrial DNA). //The results of the study are published in the journal// //Nature ////.// //(The experiment was performed on mice and scientists continue to test on mice and fruit flies to study if reducing the number of mutations in the mitochondrial DNA can lengthen their lifespan.)//



__ Aging __ : According to Discovery Health, “Aging is the inevitable decline in the body's resiliency, which ultimately leads to dwindling powers, both mental and physical.”



__ How Damaged Mitochondrial DNA Cause Your Cells to Age: __ The mitochondria in your cells are considered the ‘Power Plant’ of the cell, where energy production occurs. The mitochondria contains their own DNA which undergoes changes more than the nucleus. When mutations and damage affect the mitochondrial DNA, it will gradually immobilize the cell’s energy fabrication and quicken the aging process.





According to Nils-Göran Larsson, “Our findings can shed more light on the aging process and prove that the mitochondria play a key part in aging, they also show that it’s important to reduce the number of mutations.” // Because, in females, your damaged mDNA could be genetically passed on to your children. Take care of yourself and your own aging process. //

//__** Check out: **__//

National Institute of General Medical Sciences

[|http://publications.nigms.nih.gov/insidethecell/chapter5.html#10]

Canadian Living

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Discovery Health

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Live Science

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Sources: [] [] [] []
 * Science Daily **
 * Discovery Fit and Health **
 * National Post Health **
 * Max-Planck-Gesellschaft **

Wikipost #2 Evolution

="Bacterial Competition In Lab Shows Evolution Never Stops"=

Evolution is a constant process even in a world that hardly changes. A surprising finding in an experiment that has been challenging for more than a quarter-century. In 1988, biologist Richard Lenski took a dozen glass flasks and added identical bacteria to each of them.Those 12 populations of bacteria have been allowing other scientists watch evolution as it happens. Workers in Richard Lenski's lab, at the Michigan State University, fed and cared for the E. coli bacteria that had been collected in the glass flasks. In the past 25 years, the original microbes have produced more than 50 thousand generations.





Random mutations have allowed the bacteria to become more fit, and reproduce faster. 'In evolutionary biology, fitness is this representation of the ability of an organism to survive and reproduce." - Lenski He explains that organisms that reproduce more quickly with be the ones with the advantage and competing against those that reproduce slowly. Richard Lenski's initial prediction was that the bacteria would grow and grow but eventually hit a wall and stop evolving, become so fit that they couldn't improve upon what they have achieved. "Evolutionary biologists have long thought of evolution as a process that continues indefinitely because the world is constantly changing," -Lenski. But his bacteria live in a unchanging world, steady temperature and fed the same way every time. According to Richard's publishing in the journal Science, it turns out that bacteria haven't stopped evolving and never will.



media type="file" key="richard lenski.mp3" width="240" height="20" This podcast explains Lenski's experiment in further details and exclusive interviews.



What Richard and his colleagues Michael Wiser and Noah Ribeck find when they bring back to life the frozen bacteria and compete against other bacteria is that the bacteria keeps becoming fitter and fitter, stronger and stronger. In their findings, the original ancestor doubles its population in an hour, but the 50,000th generation can double its population in 40 minutes. "We predicted that in about a million years, their doubling time might be on the order of about 20 minutes." - Lenski. Some bacteria in his flasks can actually achieve that, so it doesn't seem like such an outrageous prediction.

Richard Lenski plans to pass his experiment and findings down to a younger scientist.

Further readings: Science Mag Richard Lenski Further Information E. coli Article

Sources: Article Of The Topic Picture E.coli Michigan State University