Cao's research suggests aging operates as programmed stages, not random decay
A Rockefeller cell biologist's analysis of millions of mouse cells reveals aging follows discrete developmental stages rather than linear degradation.
What to know
- Cao's analysis of 21 million mouse cells across multiple life stages and tissues identifies aging as discrete, programmed developmental stages rather than random molecular decay.
- The research challenges the prevailing wear-and-tear model of aging, suggesting instead that cellular destruction follows an orderly genetic program that likely begins before age 30 in humans.
- The discovery raises open evolutionary questions: if aging is programmed, why did natural selection preserve such a system?
The dispute The central contention is whether programmed aging, even if biologically real, has a satisfactory evolutionary explanation—with commenters divided between those proposing adaptive benefits and those skeptical of existing theoretical frameworks. · positions read across 14 posts and comments
Programmed aging serves evolutionary purposes: clearing out old organisms to make room for genetic recombination and preventing accumulated resources from being monopolized by long-lived individuals.
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“having people grow old is almost certainly beneficial to the species.”
aeturnum · Hacker News ↗
Programmed aging theory lacks adequate evolutionary justification, and existing explanations like antagonistic pleiotropy have known problems.
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“A big issue with the programmed aging theory is that while we already have pretty good evidence from a biological perspective of a programmed aging clock, it is harder to find an evolutionary justification for it.”
2001zhaozhao · Hacker News ↗
Aging likely results from multiple causes—both programmed mechanisms like telomere shortening (an anti-cancer defense) and decay processes—rather than a single explanation.
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“It's probably a bit of both.”
anonporridge · Hacker News ↗
Junyue Cao Cell biologist, Rockefeller University
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlespostscomments
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Hacker News audience engages with evolutionary implications
Discussion centers on evolutionary explanations for programmed aging, with commenters debating antagonistic pleiotropy, telomere shortening, resource competition between generations, and whether aging serves adaptive functions like genetic turnover and institutional renewal.
“The destruction of the system is programmed at a very early stage.”
— Junyue Cao, Cell biologist, Rockefeller University · source -
A big issue with the programmed aging theory is that while we already have pretty good evidence from a biological perspective of a programmed aging clock, it is harder to find an evolutionary justification for it.I don't know how the antagonistic pleiotropy theory is doing. If true it would be a satisfactory explanation from an evolutionary point…
2 more of the top 3 · 14 posts in this stretch
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I think death has some actual benefits. Yes, some of our comfort with death comes with learning to live with its inevitability, but it has genuinely some upsides. I think they have some to do with being able to change things and institutions, but mostly it centers around our brains and psychology. Our life cycle is connected to how our brain…
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> a) keep the process of creating new things well exercised. "We can't build that anymore. We don't know how." A factory that builds things that last too long eventually goes out of business.In an properly-managed world (not ours), we'd figure out how many factories we need to keep the process knowledge fresh and safe, then have those factories…
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background
Cao publishes findings on programmed aging stages — Cao and his team processed 21 million cells sampled from 14 tissues or organs in approximately 50 male and female mice at five life stages, building a comprehensive gene expression dataset. The analysis revealed discrete stages of aging defined by changes in molecular signals and specific cell populations, with aging beginning in humans likely before age 30.
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background
Cao launches aging research program at Rockefeller — After developing high-throughput technology to study gene expression during embryonic development as a graduate student, Cao established his own lab at Rockefeller University in 2020 to apply these tools across an animal's entire lifespan.
What people are saying 11 voices from 1 site · best of 14 · verbatim
- Why did natural selection preserve a genetically programmed aging process if organisms could theoretically live indefinitely?
- How do different evolutionary explanations (antagonistic pleiotropy, resource competition, genetic turnover) account for the observed biology?
- Yesterday
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I don't understand why the system would evolve to this state if it didn't impact reproduction.
- Sep 22
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Honestly, I wasn't expecting mythology to be linked to this discovery. But you did it very nicely.
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One programmed reason for aging is Telomere shortening which kills cells after X reproductions (Hayflick limit) which is part of our body's general anti-cancer defenses.Also relevant to the article is:
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In biology, there are always many causes, of course.I wonder if people are familiar with the hypothesis of parasite-driven aging.Parasites are vastly more prevalent than most people in modern, sanitary, medicated societies realize. Studies show that over half the biomass in a region may be parasitic.Parasite frequently keep the host alive, but…
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25 years ago I had a spirited discussion with my AP Biology teacher where I posited a similar theory when we were discussing (and running experiments on) genetic mutations. It was "spirited" because she was rather dismissive of the idea, and my (likely overconfident) teenage brain did not understand her response and reasoning. She was otherwise a…
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most of human evolutionary history was hunter gatherer and survival was subsistence level, and your arguments don't work.birthing was necessary at least to maintain population, but preferably to expand it. it's only now that we consider "too many" a possibility, and we didn't evolve for this moment.our history does not show potentially perpetually…
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Reminds me of a thought I had about galaxies being instance runs while writing Github actions to build database binaries.Each galaxy and any planets/life it contains are just artifacts of an "existence run." That's why life feels like a simulation so often (and human history repeats itself): we're inside of an organic (human word) "program" that's…
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I never considered the compound interest angle. This helps me reason about my life; thanks!
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It's probably a bit of both.Maintaining order and fighting entropy is hard, but also planned obsolescence is a good thing for systemic resilience.You have to regularly clear out the old for at least two reasons...a) keep the process of creating new things well exercised. "We can't build that anymore. We don't know how." A factory that builds…
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I've always thought eternal life would steal from the next generation if resources are scarce. If your reaction times, intelligence, etc are always good, and your experience and memories get better, it just seems like you'd out compete your kids and younger cohorts. All well and good but basically stops genetic turnover that got us to this…
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There are animals that don't "age"[1] so of course it's programmed. There's a balance between how often you want to recombine genetics and how long you want to be able to remember. It seems like a better system would have humans decline differently (i.e. no dementia) but having people grow old is almost certainly beneficial to the species.[1]…