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.
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/!
Posted for Sam Abukhadra
I think that Sam did a really great, thoughtful job on his article summarization and critique. He was concise and clear, so it was easy to understand what he was trying to communicate. He also seems to have put a lot of effort in writing this, as his sentences are fluid and well-written, making this an enjoyable read. Furthermore, I appreciate how Sam expands on his words and gives the definition so the reader understands what he is talking about. The only criticism I have is that he was a little repetitive in his second paragraph and could have taken out a couple sentences or combined them into one simpler sentence. Other than that I think Sam's write-up was done ver well. One fact that really surprised me though, was that scientists may be able to determine someones psychological age in a few decades. I think that really cool and would be very interesting to know.
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