2017-11-22

Rock and a Hard Place: Growing Old

① Bad news for seekers of eternal youth.

② Biologists reporting in "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" this week examined an evolutionary explanation for cellular ageing, and found no way around getting old.

③ Given that natural selection's pressure is reduced after humans have procreated, it seems less likely to operate on the genetic underpinnings of all that joint-creaking and skin-wrinkling.

④ But the researchers showed mathematically that, even if natural selection against such traits were perfect, cellular competition would still cause problems associated with ageing.

⑤ If a cell acted only to maximise its utility to the whole organism, it would eventually lose out to more individually competitive cells.

⑥ If instead it maximised its own vigour, out-competing surrounding cells useful to the wider organism, that is pretty much the definition of cancer.

⑦ To solve one problem, then, is to invite the other.

⑧ Wrinkles suddenly don't seem so bad.

▍生词好句

eternal /ɪˈtə:n(ə)l/: adj. 永恒的

cellular ageing /ˈsɛljʊlə/: 细胞老化 (此处的 ageing 等同于 aging)

no way around (doing) sth.: 无法绕过

given that: 考虑到

procreate /ˈprəʊkrɪeɪt/: vi. 繁衍

operate on: 对……起作用

underpinning /ˈʌndəpɪnɪŋ/: n. 基础 (文中可理解为“原因”)

joint-creaking /kri:kɪŋ/: 关节咔咔作响 (关节老化)

skin-wrinkling /ˈrɪŋk(ə)lɪŋ/: 皮肤起皱纹 (皮肤老化)

trait /treɪt/: n. 特质

cellular competition: 细胞的竞争

maximise: vt. 把……最大化

lose out to sb.: 输给；被取代

vigour /ˈvɪɡə/: n. 活力

out-compete: vt. 赢过……；胜出