StevenAustad

• http://wiki.keithl.com/StevenAustad

Steven Austad Books

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_N._Austad

• https://www.uab.edu/cas/biology/people/faculty/steven-n-austad

• https://www.stevenaustad.com/

• 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

• p001 ch01 Doctor Dunnet's Fulmar

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

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

• p129 ch09

• p147 ch10

  III. LONGEVITY IN THE SEA

• p177 ch11 Urchins, Worms, and Quahogs

• p199 ch12 Fishes and Sharks

• p219 ch13

  IV. HUMAN LONGEVITY

• p245 ch14 The Human Longevity Story

• 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