The other day, I read several articles raging against the commonly repeated notion that ultimately it is death that gives our life meaning. Some of the articles were fairly good while others were mostly pseudo-philosphical nosense. None were anywhere near as succinct as the New U-Station from Borderlands 2. If any idiot ever tells you that life…
Tag archives for Immortality
We know that those of us living in the United States have shorter life expectancy than those living in similar industrialized countries, such as in Europe. We also know that Americans are far more likely to be the victims of homicide than those who live in countries like ours, but how much does that increased…
An interesting study was published in Health Affairs last year finding a fairly stark difference in life expectancy based on years of education (emphasis added). In this article we update estimates of the impact of race and education on past and present life expectancy, examine trends in disparities from 1990 through 2008, and place observed…
The U.S. Census Bureau recently released a report (1mb PDF) on American Centenarians — men and women (mostly women) over the age of 100 years old in the United States. According to the report, . . . in 2010, there were just 53,364 centenarians in the United States, or 1.73 centenar- ians per 10,000 people…
Gravity and Levity has a concise, informative summary of the Gompertz half of the Gompertz-Makeham Law of Mortality. In the early part of the 19th century, mathematician Benjamin Gompertz proposed that mortality rates increased exponentially over time. Specifically, any individual’s odds of dying double every 8 years. As Gravity and Levity summarizes it, For me,…
Technology Review has a story on the first drug demonstrated to expand the lifespan of a mammalian species. In this case, rapamycin was administered late in the life of mice and extend lifespan by an average of 9 percent in males and 13 percent in females. According to TR, rapamycin is already approved in the…