Knowledge and Long Life
During this past weekend’s Lunar New Year celebration (year of the tiger) Asians traditionally and typically wish for practical ideals such as health, wealth, and wisdom. These ideals, however, are based not just on the tradition or custom of a particular culture but on the facts of human reality.
Showing again that there is no contradiction in reality, scientists have discovered that the phenomenon of biological ageing is causally related to the phenomenon of cancer in body tissues. The scientific news, translated for the average public, is reported is here.
The discovery basically is that living cells in the body send internal signals to stop replication by mitosis whenever their DNA becomes too cumulatively and irrecoverably damaged. Stopping cell replication is the body’s defense against unstoppable cancerous growth by DNA-damaged cells that no longer serve pro-life functions for the body. And these internal signals deprive the body with new, invigorated cells to sustain its life; thus, the body eventually ages.
The adaptive cellular process to prevent cancer, in man, a species of organism evolved to change and eliminate environmental threats, is now itself a threat to the individual man’s life. One implication for man is that if scientists can discover the means to correct DNA errors in cells, then internal signals will not trigger. Another implication is that if scientists can discover both how to control the switching on and off of these signals and also how to solve the problem of cancer, then longevity will be extended.
The faculty of reason is truly the root means of survival; and the more knowledge we have of reality, especially the reality of life, the longer lives we will have.
So the custom of wishing others health, wealth, and wisdom does have a basis in reality. Having wealth enables us to engage in scientific explorations; scientific discoveries facilitate wise decisions and actions; and prudent lifestyle choices and actions extend our health and lives.