Con trai biển Ming sống lâu nhất

[hoaphonglan1911]

Nguồn: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7066389.stm


Shakespeare was writing plays when the clam was a juvenile


Ming the clam is 'oldest animal'


A clam dredged up off the coast of Iceland is thought to have been the longest-lived animal discovered.
Scientists said the mollusc, an ocean quahog clam, was aged between 405 and 410 years and could offer insights into the secrets of longevity.

Researchers from Bangor University in north Wales said they calculated its age by counting rings on its shell.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the longest-lived animal was a clam found in 1982 aged 220.

They are like tiny tape-recorders... sitting on the sea-bed and integrating signals about water temperature and food over time
Professor Chris Richardson
Bangor University

Unofficially, another clam - found in an Icelandic museum - was discovered to be 374-years-old, Bangor University said, making their clam at least 31 years older.

The clam, nicknamed Ming after the Chinese dynasty in power when it was born, was in its infancy when Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne and Shakespeare was writing plays such as Othello and Hamlet.

Professor Chris Richardson, from Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences, told the BBC: "The growth-increments themselves provide a record of how the animal has varied in its growth-rate from year to year, and that varies according to climate, sea-water temperature and food supply.

"And so by looking at these molluscs we can reconstruct the environment the animals grew in. They are like tiny tape-recorders, in effect, sitting on the sea-bed and integrating signals about water temperature and food over time."

'Escaping' old age

Prof Richardson said the clam's discovery could help shed light on how some animals can live to extraordinary ages.

"What's intriguing the Bangor group is how these animals have actually managed, in effect, to escape senescence [growing old]," he said.

"One of the reasons we think is that the animals have got some difference in cell turnover rates that we would associate with much shorter-lived animals."

He said the university had received money from the UK charity Help The Aged to help fund its research.

[NEP]

Chuyện rất lạ. Thanks HPL.

NPE thật không hiểu sao có nhiều người thích sống lâu như vậy (và cái ý tưỡng trẻ mãi không già). Vài chục năm rồi thì đi nghĩ đễ thế hệ mới lên tiếp tục, chứ cứ khơi khơi sống hoài như vậy chĩ làm khổ cho gia đình và xã hội. Theo npe nghĩ đến được 60 là vĩnh phúc lắm rồi, lên được 70 thì càng tốt, tới 80 cũng hay. Đến được những đợt tuổi nầy thì con cái đã trưỡng thành, cũng có mấy chục năm kinh nhiệm đời, và cũng là lúc bước ra nhường chổ cho một thế hệ mới. Sinh lão bịnh tử, có chết mới gọi là trọn 1 đời. [chĩ là ý kiến riêng của npe]