Dr. Shostak has submitted the following abstract and cover information for our consideration. - KP
Cover Page
Stanley Shostak
sshostak@pittl.edu
412 421 0504
% Department of Biological Sciences
A224 Langley Hall
5th Avenue
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
USA
Abstract
Human beings are living longer on average and beyond one hundred years in increasing numbers. At the same time, fecundity is diminishing, women are delaying childbirth, sperm counts are down, and a youthful quality of life is becoming endemic. Although the preponderance of these events are typically explained by 'social' causes, the trends probably begin long before birth and have a major biological component: we are evolving in the direction of an indefinite lifetime or potential immortality. The explanation at the biological level would seem to be that potential germ cells are increasingly funneled into potential stem cells that are stored in organs where they take part in physiological turnover and healing, restoring vigor to organs that would otherwise age.
Biographical Sketch
Stanley Shostak was awarded a Ph.D. in Biology from Brown University in 1964 and is currently an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. As a developmental biologist, he authored several research articles on regeneration in Cnidaria, notably Hydra, and recently completed his trilogy on the history and theory of biological thought: "Death of Life," "Evolution of Sameness and Difference," and "Becoming Immortal."
Edited by caliban, 13 January 2004 - 11:54 PM.