Steven Austad Books
https://www.uab.edu/cas/biology/people/faculty/steven-n-austad
- The University of Alabama at Birmingham
- College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biology
Methuselah's Zoo
what nature can teach us about living longer, healthier lives
- 2022 Beaverton Lib 571.879 AUS
Preface
pxii Joáo Pedro de Magalháes maintains website AnAge
p001 ch01 Doctor Dunnet's Fulmar
- p005 Cancer death rate doubles every 8 years, 300x more likely at age 85 than age 25
- ln(300)/ln(2) = 8.23 doublings, 60 y / 8.23 = 7.23 years per doubling
- .. with a survivor bias
- p011 metabolism, growth, reproduction, aging, physiology faster in small animals
p012 note 5 Longevity Quotient paper 1991
p013 farm servant Thomas Parr claimed to be 152 yo in 1635
Harvey's autopsy suggested less than 70 yo
p013 Austad's 1997 book Why We Age PSI $6.39ppb $6.81hard Amazon
p014 naturalist Stanley Flower supposed 157 yo elephant changed from African to Asian elephant ... or sloppy records
I. LONGEVITY IN THE AIR
p019 ch02 The Origin of Flight
p020 2.5 meter Arthropleura millipede 300 mya
p021 [ [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._B._S._Haldane | J.B.S. Haldane ]] You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft and, on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away. A rat would probably be killed, though it can fall safely from the eleventh story of a building, a man is broken, a horse splashes.
- p023 sprinting up stairs 7x to 14x more energy expensive than sitting reading
- p023 insect flight 100 beats per second, 50 to 150x more energy expensive than rest
- p024 oxygen radicals accompany energy delivery
p025 juvenile mayfly nymphs molt in streams for years, minutes to days as a reproductive adult
p026 Cicada nymphs as much as 17 years feeding on root sap underground, synchronized mass emergence for weeks
- p027 no insect species with documented adults living longer than 1 year in the wild
p028 Monarch Butterfly many generations per year, flying to southern Mexico in autumn, north in spring. The southern phase lasts as long as 8 months, migration and summer phases weeks
p029 insect flight wings fragile, covered by hard elytron/elytra when not flying
p031 ch03 Pterosaurs: The First Flying Vertebrates
p039 Pterodaustro Guinazui pterodactyl hundreds of fine teeth, probably filter-fed like a baleen whale
p041 ch04 Birds: The Longest-Lived Dinosaurs
p041 bar-tailed godwit flies nonstop from Alaska to New Zealand in nine days and nights
p042 wild house sparrows live at least 19 years, 3 years in captivity
p043 Archaeopteryx not a bird, no keeled breastbone. Probably extra boost for hops, like "flying" squirell
- p044 true bird evolved before 66 mya, a few survived Chicxulub impact
p045 Fig 4.1 an 81yo Major Mitchell's cockatoo, the world's longest lived bird at Chicago's Brookfield zoo
p049 Albatrosses mate for life, 1 egg most years
- p050 Albatross named "Wisdom" more than 70 years old
- p051 current mate "Akeakamai", Hawaiian for "lover of wisdom"
- p051 LQ (life quotient) of 5.2, 5.2 times longer than average same-size zoo mammal
p052 Manx Shearwater at least 55 years, LQ of 6, migrates annually from North Atlantic to Brazil or Argentina
- p053 Turkey breast meat (flight muscle) adapted for energy bursts, "drumsticks" dark with myoglobin for running endurance
p054 ruby-throated hummingbird 40℃ 104℉ endothermic, 80 wingbeats per second
- p055 twice fly 600 miles nonstop migrating across Caribbean, live more than 9 years
p055 broad-tailed hummingbird at least 12 years
- p056 birds make fewer free radicals than mammals, can withstand more free radical damage
- p057 Medical researchers study short-lived animals, author desires much longer studies
so we can live longer, so researchers have time for longer studies
p059 ch05 Bats: The Longest-Lived Mammals
p059 Donald R. Griffin taught with Austad
- found bat older than the grad student taking notes
- p061 bat genome: closest living mammalian relatives are horses
- p062 bats can echolocate and avoid a piano wire (of course, it is a resonator)
- p062 bats harbor more than 800 coronavirus species that have not become a problem ... yet.
p063 little brown bat longevity quotient ≥ 7.5
p064 vampire bats also die of rabies, few have it
- p066 mice - six pups in 3 weeks, most bats one pup in 3 to 6 months, vampire bats seven months
- p067 vampire bat longevity quotient 5.5
- p071 Indian flying fox LQ 4.1
- p072 6 gram Brandt bat 41 years, LQ 10.0
- p074 hibernating bears reduce metabolism to 20% of normal
- p075 Older people can lose 16% of lower body strength after ten days of bed rest, 30 days for younger people
p076 n9 Large‐scale genome sampling reveals unique immunity and metabolic adaptations in bats 2011
II. LONGEVITY ON THE EARTH
p081 ch06 Tortoises and Tuataras: Longevity on Islands
- p082 shell and a beak = turtle, tortoise = slow moving terrestrial turtle
p083 Loihi seamount 3200 feet deep SE of Hawai'i island, could emerge 10k to 100k years from now
- p084 Birds and insects evolve to flightless on windy islands
p084 Komodo dragon largest lizard, eats goats and attack humans
p085 Homo floriensis 1Mya to 50Kya, 105cm, 25kg (BMI 22.7)
p101 ch07 Queen for a Lifetime
- p111 "Biology is complicated. If it were simple, it would be physics"
p113 ch08 Tunnels and Caves
p119 n6 Resistance to experimental tumorigenesis in cells of a long‐lived mammal, the naked mole‐rat (Heterocephalus glaber) 2010
p124 olm blind white cave salamander 70 to 102 years
p129 ch09 The Behmoths (Elephants)
p133 Elephants can distinguish hunting/non-hunting tribes by speech PNAS 2014
p147 ch10 Big Brains (Nonhuman Primates)
III. LONGEVITY IN THE SEA
p177 ch11 Urchins, Worms, and Quahogs
Steven Austad Books
https://www.uab.edu/cas/biology/people/faculty/steven-n-austad
- The University of Alabama at Birmingham
- College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biology
Methuselah's Zoo
what nature can teach us about living longer, healthier lives
- 2022 Beaverton Lib 571.879 AUS
Preface
pxii Joáo Pedro de Magalháes maintains website AnAge
p001 ch01 Doctor Dunnet's Fulmar
- p005 Cancer death rate doubles every 8 years, 300x more likely at age 85 than age 25
- ln(300)/ln(2) = 8.23 doublings, 60 y / 8.23 = 7.23 years per doubling
- .. with a survivor bias
- p011 metabolism, growth, reproduction, aging, physiology faster in small animals
p012 note 5 Longevity Quotient paper 1991
I. LONGEVITY IN THE AIR
p019 ch02 The Origin of Flight
p031 ch03 Pterosaurs: The First Flying Vertibrates
p041 ch04 Birds: The Longest-Lived Dinosaurs
p059 ch05 Bats: The Longest-Lived Mammals
p076 n9 Large‐scale genome sampling reveals unique immunity and metabolic adaptations in bats 2011
II. LONGEVITY ON THE EARTH
p081 ch06 Tortoises and Tuataras: Longevity on Islands
p101 ch07 Queen for a Lifetime
- p111 "Biology is complicated. If it were simple, it would be physics"
p113 ch08 Tunnels and Caves
p119 n6 Resistance to experimental tumorigenesis in cells of a long‐lived mammal, the naked mole‐rat (Heterocephalus glaber) 2010
p124 olm blind white cave salamander 70 to 102 years
p129 ch09 The Behmoths (Elephants)
p133 Elephants can distinguish hunting/non-hunting tribes by speech PNAS 2014
p147 ch10 Big Brains (Nonhuman Primates)
III. LONGEVITY IN THE SEA
p177 ch11 Urchins, Worms, and Quahogs
p199 ch12 Fishes and Sharks
p219 ch13 Whales Tales
IV. HUMAN LONGEVITY
p245 ch14 The Human Longevity Story
p269 ch15 Methuselah's Zoo Moving Forward
- p272 one in ten cancer therapies effective in mice also effective in humans
- p272 colleague won Nobel for the only part of his research rejected by a government review group
- p273 whale cells in lab
- p273 2012 Nobel Shina Yamanaka transformed skin/liver/blood/other cells into stem cells
- p273 we can grow replacement human parts from our own cells
- p274 treat aging itself as a disease
p275 geroscience
How many atoms in human body?
- Total Earth biomass 550 GT carbon 5.5 x 1e2 x 1e9 x 1e6 (tonnes per gram) = 5.5e17 grams
- carbon is 12 amu and 12% of the atoms in human body
- Avogadro's number 6e23, hence one gram of human carbon is 5e22 atoms
- Associated with (100/12)*5e22 ≈ 4e21 total atoms per gram of human carbon
Fermi estimate: Total Earth biomass 5.5e17 * 4e21 atoms = 2e39 biomass atoms if humans representative
- There are 1e22 to 1e24 stars in the universe
- Thousands of asteroids and trillions of comets and icy bodies orbit the Sun
- Perhaps 3e12 comets per star times 1e24 stars is 6e36 icy bodies in the universe, not counting unbound bodies
- that's a LOT of physics
- Both biology and physics are complicated ... or simple, if one is a simpleton
To Err Is Human, To Admit It Is Not and Other Essays
- 2022
Real People Don't Own Monkeys
- 2022
Why We Age: What Science Is Discovering about the Body's Journey Through Life
1999 Why We Age: What Science Is Discovering about the Body's Journey Through Life
p199 ch12 Fishes and Sharks
- p199
- p205
- p206
- p206
- p209
- p210
- p210
- p211
- p215
p219 ch13 Whales Tales
- p219
- p221
- p227
- p227
- p228
- p238
- p238
- p240
- p241
- p241
IV. HUMAN LONGEVITY
p245 ch14 The Human Longevity Story
- p249
- p250
- p252
- p255
p269 ch15 Methuselah's Zoo Moving Forward
- p272 one in ten cancer therapies effective in mice also effective in humans
- p272 colleague won Nobel for the only part of his research rejected by a government review group
- p273 whale cells in lab
- p273 2012 Nobel Shina Yamanaka transformed skin/liver/blood/other cells into stem cells
- p273 we can grow replacement human parts from our own cells
- p274 treat aging itself as a disease
p275 geroscience
How many atoms in human body?
- Total Earth biomass 550 GT carbon 5.5 x 1e2 x 1e9 x 1e6 (tonnes per gram) = 5.5e17 grams
- carbon is 12 amu and 12% of the atoms in human body
- Avogadro's number 6e23, hence one gram of human carbon is 5e22 atoms
- Associated with (100/12)*5e22 ≈ 4e21 total atoms per gram of human carbon
Fermi estimate: Total Earth biomass 5.5e17 * 4e21 atoms = 2e39 biomass atoms if humans representative
- There are 1e22 to 1e24 stars in the universe
- Thousands of asteroids and trillions of comets and icy bodies orbit the Sun
- Perhaps 3e12 comets per star times 1e24 stars is 6e36 icy bodies in the universe, not counting unbound bodies
- that's a LOT of physics
- Both biology and physics are complicated ... or simple, if one is a simpleton
To Err Is Human, To Admit It Is Not and Other Essays
- 2022
Real People Don't Own Monkeys
- 2022
Why We Age: What Science Is Discovering about the Body's Journey Through Life
1999 Why We Age: What Science Is Discovering about the Body's Journey Through Life