Sam Abukhadra
11/1/14
Earth Science/Block D Mrs. McClellan
Yong, Ted. “Scientists Urge Study of Environmental Factors That May Speed Aging” National geographic. 17 sept 2014
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140528-gerontogens-chemicals-toxins-environment-study-aging-science/
I read the article, “Scientists Urge Study of Environmental Factors That May Speed Aging.” The article talked about various causes for accelerated aging and the research done on the matter. Scientists at the University North Carolina have concluded that genes only influence the rate at which you age by 25%. Thus leaving other factors such as substances and experiences to influence the majority of the rate at which you age. These outer influences are referred to as gerontogens. Gerontogens are usually negative experiences or unhealthy substances, such as tobacco, industrial emissions, and even physiological stress. A recent spike in scientific interest has occurred on the topic, due to the discovery that some chemotherapy and HIV medications can increase aging. The article also discussed research conducted on mice to discover the effect of different gerontogens as well as to discover new ones. Scientists are also working on tests that could be developed with the next few decades to determine someones psychological age. The article concluded by stating that the field of aging is still working towards this goal and still has quite a while to go to before obtaining it.
The discovery of new gerontogens and the ability to test peoples’ psychological age could be extremely important discoveries for our lives. The ability to know what substances I consume or activities I engage in and their correlation to my lifespan is priceless information. This information is key in prolonging your life and ending interaction with harmful substances and activities. More information about possible gerontogens would be essential to increasing our lifespans. Tests in the future about physiological age could also aid in research for new gerontogens and psychological health.
I thought this article was very well written and very informative. I liked the structure of this article and the way each different section of research was organized. The article was fluid and intelligently centered around one major idea. The only issue I had was the wording of a few paragraphs. For example, when talking about specific research the article got a little wordy and was hard to follow. It was over specific when talking about cells and proteins. This article could be improved if a couple sections of research were a little less descriptive and easier to follow. Overall I think this is a great, informative, well written, and very interesting article.
ReplyDeleteSam did a beautiful job explaining complex ideas such as gerontogens to the reader by explaining it in terms that an average reader would comprehend. As described by Sam, gerontogens are things that have a diminishing effect on our life span. Sam precedes to list examples of this such as smoking Tabaco or experiencing PTSD. Additionally he stated that particular HIV medications may be a predominate cause of a shortened life span for those afflicted with the virus. However this shortened life expectancy may be shortened due to the virus itself rather than the medication that tries to prevent it. Additionally Sam stresses the importance of this discovery. This discovery could provide additional information into activities that people play on a daily basis such as looking at screens for too long or playing contact sports. He does this well by referring top this information as “priceless.” The final part of this analysis that Sam articulates particularly well is when his sourcing of information. He names the University of North Carolina which is known for it advance biomedical and psychological field research. Often time writers neglect to add sources which results in a lack of credibility in their work. Prior to reading this article I would have guessed that genetics we the chief variable in determining the span of one’s life however as stated by Sam, this is not true. In fact, genetics makes up only about a quarter of the influential factors that shape one’s life span. Another interesting fact provided by Sam was that scientists use traumatized mice to compare life expectancies which provided a parallel for humans to draw their predicted life expectancies to. To improve on the analysis Sam might consider using less personal pronouns such as “I” and “we.” As a reader one knows that what is being written is your thoughts and the use of “I think” or “In my opinion” interrupts the flow of the overall well written analysis.