• Question: how old can you get or can you live forever?

    Asked by david perez-aguilar to Giant Hogweed on 15 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Giant Hogweed

      Giant Hogweed answered on 15 Nov 2017:

      hmm… you seemed to haven this a fair bit of thought! The oldest human was a whooping 122 years, she was a French lady. There are many centenarians in Japan i.e. people who lived beyond 100 years and it’s said that their sea food diet and genes have a big role to play.

      We cannot live forever unfortunately. We all have an enzyme called telomerase in our cells, which prevents damage to our DNA by sticking to the ends of it. However, as we grow and as our cells divide, the telomerase becomes lesser and lesser in quantity. This means that when the telomerase is very little it cannot protect our DNA any more and we must die!

      Keeping posting your great questions and vote for the giant hogweed 🙂 we need your votes for sequencing Britain’s most dangerous plant!

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