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0 pointsbdamm10y ago0 comments

Perhaps we could conclude that cosmic rays cause increased rate of aging. Actually, it seems pretty obvious really, that a body healing itself from radiation damage would "age" more quickly. Doesn't every cell division increase the cost of further cell divisions through mutations? And isn't there actually a mechanism to ultimately shut down cell division i.e. Telomere breakdown?

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8 comments · 2 top-level

CydeWeys10y ago· 6 in thread

The linked article does a good job of refuting this hypothesis. There are radiation workers on Earth who receive regular, higher doses than what astronauts receive, and are not subject to these effects. It really is the weightlessness doing it, not the slightly higher ambient radiation.

toomuchtodo10y ago

Cosmic rays have enough energy to travel through the atmosphere and damage the sight of commercial pilots. Its not a leap to think that the exposure is significantly higher in orbit.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4131232.stm

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16087845

choicewords10y ago

While the quantity might be just a higher, cosmic ray can arrive with more energy than particle accelerator can produce. I can imagine our bodies might not be able to handle healing from those types of events.

toomuchtodo10y ago

At those energy levels, those particles are ripping through DNA like a bullet.

dbrannan10y ago

Would we live longer if gravity was higher than 9.81 m/s2? I think it might be difficult to actually test this, but it is a fun question.

vinceguidry10y ago

If you take any complex system out of the environment it evolved to survive in, it won't work as well. Doesn't matter which knob you tweak, it won't be the environment it evolved in. There will just be a different set of failures.

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Goronmon10y ago

I would assume that stronger gravity would just come along with a different set of health issues (joint and muscle problems dealing with more stress, heart would be affected having to work harder to pump blood, etc).

mtdewcmu10y ago

I seem to remember from anatomy and physiology that most body cells don't really divide, the exception being epithelial cells, which are constantly being produced and shedding. So I'm not sure that DNA damage would tend to get propagated by cell division, at least in adults.

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