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)
- p086 warmer buried turtle eggs more females, cooler males
- p091 - p093 doubtful tortoise longevity stories
p094 Tuataras
- p095 juvenile third eye on top of head, covered with scales later
p095 low temperature -> female, high temperature -> male . . / 500g females, 1000g males
p096 estimated age >110yo , longevity quotient 10.3
- p097 heart rate 6BPM
- p098 we may learn to reduce molecular damage and extend human life
p101 ch07 Queen for a Lifetime
- p103 ants churn and turn soil, fertilize it with material brought into their burrows
p103 DDT against SE U.S. fire ants damaged pets and wildlife, motivated Rachel Carson's 1962 Silent Spring
- p103 ant larvae grow and molt four times, make cocoons, emerge adults
- p103 no molt as adults, very limited body repair
p104 winged female nuptual flight with males, stores sperm.
- p104 land, dig nest, lays many generations of eggs.
- p104 Females develop from fertilized eggs and stored sperm, males from unfertilized eggs
- p105 Sisters share 3/4 of genes, 50% from mother and 25% with brothers
p105 Closer relatives with sisters than parents eusociality fosters complex societies
p105 termite detrivory, "premier recyclers"
- p104 termite nuptial flight bonds partners, mate after landing and making nest
p104 termite nymphs have legs, grow and molt into adults
- p104 termite XY genetics resemble mammals
- p107 oldest verified termite queen 21 years or more in laboratory
- p107 29 year old ant queen, H Kutter, R Stumper 1969 (entomology)
Sixth International Congress of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI)
- p108 Ant and termite queens produce 1 egg per minute for decades, high energy needs
- p109 queens and nest-bound drones long lived
- no cancer ... no need to repair damage, so no cell reproduction system to go haywire
p111 Royal Jelly
- p111 "Biology is complicated. If it were simple, it would be physics"
p112 ILP-2 resembles human insulin
p113 ch08 Tunnels and Caves
p114 Naked Mole Rats not moles or rats.
- p115 eusocial mammals, rare in vertebrates
- p115 tunnels to large tubers, partly eaten and allowed to regenerate
- p115 nest chamber as much as two meters underground
p116 Rochelle Buffenstein Aging studies in naked mole-rats
- p117 Human mortality rate doubles every eight years over 40; in mice, every three months
- p117 Naked Mole Rats don't appear to get cancer
- p119 naked mole-rats have more oxygen radical damage than mice
p119 n6 Resistance to experimental tumorigenesis in cells of a long‐lived mammal, the naked mole‐rat (Heterocephalus glaber) 2010
p120 Spalax unrelated to naked mole rats, similar behavior and niche
p121 no naturally occuring cancer, Spalax cells die if slightly injured
- p122 Large bat colonies roosting deep in caves produce toxic amounts of ammonia
- p122 ifKeyt Fischer oxygen drops below 19% or CO₂ rises above 0.6%, drowsiness, headaches, fuzzy thinking
- p122 ISS standards 3x worse than submarines
- p123 Mole rat burrows can be 6% oxygen and 10% CO₂
- p123 they can survive 3% oxygen and 80% CO₂
- p123 author hypothesizes links between CO₂/O₂ tolerance, cancer resistance, and longevity
p124 olm blind white cave salamander 70 to 102 years
- p125 reproductive adulthood 16 years, 12 years between clutches of 35 eggs, survive a year without food.
- p126 70 year lifetimes in zoos, models suggest 102 years possible
p129 ch09 The Behmoths (Elephants)
p129 plant-eating titanosaurs, 50-100 tons, 30 meters length
p129 Paraceratherium probably largest mammal, 15 tonnes
p130 Palaeoloxodon namadicus largest elephant, 4x larger than modern elephants, extinct for more than 25,000 years
- p130 Three species of elephant; Asian, African savanna, African forest (recognized separate from savanna in 2021 )
- p131 Indian emperor Chandagupta vs. Alexander? Citation Needed
- p131 African elephants have two trunk-tip "fingers" that can grasp like a mittened hand. Asian elephants only one
- p132 tusks also tools, one tusk favored like human "handedness"
- or is that actually favored eye? the right eye can only see 35 degrees to the left, and vice versa, but it can see 160 degrees backwards.
- p132 African females have tusks, Asian females do not
- p132 ivory can be carved without splintering, but not without hunting elephants to population collapse
p133 Elephants can distinguish hunting/non-hunting tribes by speech PNAS 2014
p133 John Wesley Hyatt Celluloid = hardened nitrocellulose 1869
- p134 Elephant females fertile for 3-6 days every 3-9 years
p134 musth 60x-140x testosterone increase, aggressiveness
p135 Tusko elephant 1962, injected with 300 mg LSD (human recreational dose 300μg), died
- p141 African elephant bulls grow, increasing dominance and musth, reproductive peak 50 yo
- p141 male life expectancy at birth 37 y, 30% survive past 50 yo, none past 65 yo
- p142 skewed downwards by infant mortality
- p144 elephants grow through six sets of teeth, four sets lost by adulthood. Tooth wear may limit lifespan.
p144 largest mammalian genome is the red vizcacha rodent of Argentina, three times human size
p145 TP53 cellular tumor antigen
- p145 moKeyt Fischerre than half of all human cancers have mutated TP53; we have one copy from each parent, Asian elephants have 13 to 18 copies
p146 Whales do not have extra copies of TP53
p147 ch10 Big Brains (Nonhuman Primates)
p149 Primate longevity: Its place in the mammalian scheme 1992 Steven N. Austad, Kathleen E. Fischer
- p149 brain size correlates with body size ... which correlates with longevity
- apart from that, brain size has slightly worse correlation to longevity compared to other organs
- p150 primates live slower than other mammals; longer parent care, reproduce slowly
- p151 1.2% of human nucleotides differ from chimps, 30% of genes identical
- among ourselves, 0.1% variation
- p151 7% difference from average African monkey, 15% from a mouse
p153 Suzana Herculano-Houzel method to count neurons in preserved brains
p153 The Human Advantage a New Understanding of How Our Brain Became Remarkable, 2016, Herculano-Houzel, Suzana
- p153 Humans have more cortical neurons than any species measured so far (before 2022)
- p155 chimpanzees (including humans, claim zoologists) live the longest of any primates
- p155 female chimpanzees emigrate into new groups before maturity
- p156 wild chimps develop faster than humans, well-fed captive chimps even faster
p156 Cheeta "recently celebrated 72nd birthday"
- p157 author skeptical, watched dreadful Tarzan movies, looked at ear whorls
p158 Lie of the Jungle R. D. Rosen 2008
- Cheetah probably juvenile chimp from amusement park that closed in 1967
- p158 (1) scientists make terrible investigative journalists (2) in Hollywood, even chimps lie about their age
- p159 female chimps emigrate to prevent close inbreeding
- p161 North American Regional Chimpanzee Studbook, Steve Ross
p164 orangutan encephalization quotient 2.9, second highest after humans
- disassemble enclosures, jimmy locks, share crowbars
- not particularly aggressive
- p165 Sloths move as if swimming though honey
- p167 orangutan cheek flanges (pads) signal dominance
- p169 recent zoo records of orangutans living to their early 50s
p170 Pet monkeys will bite you
- p172 capuchin's longevity more likely 40-45y, for longevity quotient of 3.6
III. LONGEVITY IN THE SEA
p177 ch11 Urchins, Worms, and Quahogs
- p177 Average ocean depth 3700m, deepest 11000m; Everest is 8850m above sea level
- p177 3% of water is ice and fresh water, 97% is ocean
- p177 Only 20% mapped, 90% of aquatic species undiscovered
- p180 small endothermic animals cannot live in the sea
p180 tubeworms anchor to underwater surfaces and secrete a mineral tube big enough to withdraw into.
p181 Osedax, bone-eating snot flower
Osedax mucofloris sp. n. can be cultured in an aquarium
p181 cold seeps feed chemosynthetic organisms living for millenia
p181 hydrothermal vents last decades
p185 Red sea urchins can live two centuries Thomas Ebert OSU
- p186 Carbon-14 half life 5760 years
- p187 Modern lifeforms marked by C14 from nuclear tests
Shroud of Turin 1260 to 1390 AD, Ötzi 5100ya to 5400ya
- p188 Only sign of sea urchin aging is slightly slower cell replacement in some tissues
p190 sclerochronology like dendrochonology
- p191 Clam shell growth ring width is a "bar code" for sea conditions
- p191 by matching wide and narrow rings to a series of older clam shells we can date clams from 659 AD
p191 Arctica islandica mahogany quahog (koh - hog)
p191 Ming ocean quahog clam born 1499, 507 yo when captured
p194 Pacific geoduck clam oldest 179 years
p194 freshwater pearl mussel oldest 190 years
p194 giant deep sea oyster older than 500 years
p195 bivalves survived the Permian Great Dying 250 Mya
- "that killed 95% of all animal species" ... no, 81% of marine species, 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species
p196 Marine Biological Laboratory
- MBL 63 Nobel prize winners
- Harvard 161, UC Berkeley 110, Cambridge 104, U.Chicago 100, MIT 97, Columbia 96, Stanford 84
p197 quahog protein folding stability might lead to new treatments for Alzheimer's
- p198 but as of 2022, all Austad has discovered is many things that are not the secret
p199 ch12 Fishes and Sharks
- p199 more fish freshwater species than ocean species because ocean is stable, lakes and streams vary
- p205 Beluga caviar $1000/oz, gravid female Beluga sturgeon up to 12% roe by body weight
p206 sturgeon age can be estimated from growth lines in pectoral fin rays
- p206 Oldest sturgeon 152yo caught in 1953, longevity quotient 8.5
p209 At least 6 rockfish species live a century or more
p210 rougheye rockfish 205 years, longevity quotient 14
p210 also has good DNA repair genes, still haven't learned why
p211 rougheye lives deep at 150 atmospheres of pressure, die of barotrauma (exploding swim bladder) close to surface
p215 Greenland shark 156 years, longevity quotient 11.7
p219 ch13 Whales Tales
p219 fanged deer of Africa omnivores
- may resemble ancestors of whales
p221 ascertainment bias
- dolphins who save humans are remembered, not those who don't
p227 killer whale Orcinus orca, exceptional intelligence, cooperative pack hunter
- zero recorded fatal attacks from wild Orca, several trainers killed by captive orca "bad-day-don't-mess-with-me" attacks
p227 charismatic: large, popular appeal to humans
- p228 Orca spotted 160 km up large rivers like the Columbia (Bonneville Dam is 235 river kilometers from the Pacific)
- p238 Bowhead whales killed in the 1980s and 1990s had imbedded harpoon points made of ivory, slate, and stone at least a century old ... whales at least that old
p238 amino acid racemization measures time since protein formation
- measured eye lenses of 42 bowhead whales, three males older than 150 years, one 211 years
if temperature lower than expected, racemization slower, whale might be more than 250 years old
- p240 recent studies show three times the food intake, tripled metabolic rate, tripled free radicals expected
- p241 bowhead whale survival calculations skewed by hunting
- p241 long life plus enormous body size suggests exceptional cancer resistance.
IV. HUMAN LONGEVITY
p245 ch14 The Human Longevity Story
p249 Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492 90% of indigenous people died from introduced diseases
p250 cuscuses occupy monkey ecological niche
p250 Miyanmin 3500 people in the Telefomin district of the Sandaun province in Papua New Guinea
p252 Nancy Howell developed methods using individual relationships in tribes to estimate how long people lived
- p255 In 1900 France, life expectancy was 45 years due to high infant/childhood mortality, but the most common adult age of death was early 70s
p256 Papua New Guinea world's highest frequency of ApoE4, but no increased risk of cardiovascular and Alzheimer's disease
- p257 some attribute women's older age to "grandmothering effect"
- p258 Austad asks "why menopause?" - perhaps to avoid miscarriage, problem pregnancies, abnormal children
- p259 but more inclined to "ovarian aging hasn't adapted yet", same egg production rate as chimpanzees
- p260 Swedish record-keeping good from 1750 and impeccable after 1860
- p260 Longevity increased dramatically after technological development and sanitation
- p260 Swedish infant mortality 50 times lower than 1900, life expectancy 80 years
- p260 Japan life expectancy 84.5 years
- p261 we have so many centenarians that only 105 or 110 is celebrated
- p262 "centenarians" less common where birth and death records become more accurate
p262 Thomas "Old Tom" Parr claimed 152yo
p262 William Harvey autopsy suggested less than 70yo
- p263 Life magazine 1966 about Azerbaijan villagers living to 160
- p263 Harvard physician Alexander Leaf misinformation victim, 130yo men in Vilcabamba Ecuador
p264 Jeanne Calment oldest fully verified person, lived to 122
- p265 longevity quotient 5.5. 132 cm tall, weight 40 kg late in life.
- p266 Jean Calment: "I have only one wrinkle, and I am sitting on it"
- p266 American Sarah Knauss 119yo, Japanese woman Kane Tanaka 119yo (d 2022)
- p266 we know of eleven women that made it to 117, Lucile Randon survived COVID at age 116
- p266 oldest man known to date Jiroemon Kimura, lived a few days past his 116th birthday
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
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