Writer Gabriel García Márquez optimistically remarked: "The essence of the human being is resisting the passage of time."
Another statement belongs to the author of Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk, who was a little less sentimental. “For some, everything happens quickly, for others - slowly. We have no control over the laws of gravity, and accidents are beyond our control, all of us will get it in the end."
An even more interesting conclusion was made by the fashion designer Diana Von Furstenberg. For her, aging is like turning into a myth.
In a general understanding of the types of aging, there can be as many as there are total years in a person's life. What does science think about this? In order to untangle this tangle of misunderstandings - or, who knows, confusing it even more.
Caleb Scarf. Astrobiologist, Director of the Columbia Center for Astrobiology at Columbia University
The first thing that comes to my mind is planetary age. We have such a prejudice that life can arise only on a young planet, although we have no reason to believe that such assumptions are correct. On the young Earth, there must have been a certain set of conditions - whether chemical, thermal, kinetic - that at least allowed life to emerge, or even pushed it towards the further development of the most complex molecular structures and their functions. But we don't know if it should always be that way. It can also be assumed that in older planets, geophysical activity decreases due to cooling, and huge changes in climate can occur when their stars-luminaries age and begin to emit more and more energy. All of this can have a detrimental effect on life … or not.
For astrobiology, aging may be part of an even bigger question. The universe is 13.8 billion years old, and here we are. Maybe our existence is somehow connected with this period of her life? Perhaps in the distant future, the universe will be incapable of sustaining life in any way, just as it was not capable of it in its early years. It may well be that right now is the most optimal time for the existence of life in our universe.
Hope Jaren. Geochemist and geobiologist at the University of Hawaii, author of The Girl in the Laboratory
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When I think about aging in geochemistry, I think about radioisotope dating. This is a method for determining the age of comets. This method uses radioactive isotopes, that is, atoms that spontaneously change the configuration of their subatomic particles, losing particles during radioactive decay. You may know that uranium can decay to lead. The radio decay period is the most constant and accurate one known to science. Therefore, if I measure the proportion of uranium and lead in the stone, then I can determine its age, that is, the time that the atoms of this stone are actively decaying. This is how geochemists determine the age of stones. The most interesting thing is that with the development of technology, geochemistry itself develops and changes. For example, in 2010 geochemists discovered a mechanism for determining the smallest amounts of lead in a substance. So, stone,the proportion of uranium / lead, which was originally calculated as 9.0 / 3.0, now has a value of 9.0009 / 3.0003. In other words, in 2010 we learned that this stone is actually younger than we thought it was in 2000. This is how the age of the stone became obsolete.
This is why the geological timeline (a diagram that depicts epochs and their times) requires constant adjustments. Notice the slight differences between 1983, 1999, 2009, and 2012. Even our age has an age.
Kenneth Poss. Biologist, Director of the Regeneration Next Initiative at Duke University
What interests me most is the relationship between the tissue's ability to regenerate and age. Mammals in the embryonic stage of development, and even newborns, have a good ability to recover from injury, a trait that disappears in adolescence and adulthood. In the first week of development, mice can even cope with a heart attack, from which not a trace will remain, although at an older age, scarring cannot be avoided. What is the reason for such a change in regenerative abilities?
As in animals, in humans, too, the ability to regenerate decreases with age. It affects our muscles, blood and the generation of new neurons in our brain, just like other tissues. Thus, I, like many scientists, associate aging with a general decrease in the regenerative potential of our tissues. The most exciting thing about all this is that by studying how and why regeneration works and what factors affect it in a young and old organism, we will understand what we need to do to improve the quality of life.
Charles A. Ware Straten. Geologist, Curator of the New York City Museum and Geological Survey
I am a sedimentary geologist. Living my usual human life, measured in tens of years, I study shell fragments and broken old stones (dirt, sand, stone), everything that again became lumps hundreds of millions of years ago. Every day my mind takes a journey between these two different sensations of time - which also means different perceptions of aging. Much of my research has taken up the study of mountain structures on the eastern border of North America, a history recorded by sedimentary rocks from the Devonian period, somewhere between 419 and 359 million years ago. The Appalachian mountains are now sharper and higher, lifted by continental collisions between 450 and 300 million years ago.
Be that as it may, once rising, all mountain ranges begin to wear out and succumb to erosion. Over time, the areas adjacent to the mountains are covered with sand, gravel and mud, which gradually turn into stones. In the western Appalachian Mountains, sedimentary rocks show the aging of the mountain belt. Part of the story can be understood through changes in the type of sedimentary rocks and changes in the mineral particles in these rocks. Clastic quartz layers are replaced by layers of white quartz with an admixture of metamorphic sandstone. And so it goes, keeping the history of Appalachian aging through the ages.
Now, 450 million years later, the Appalachians are still eroded. They are still sinking, heading for a completely flat plain. Well, they are getting old.
Jerry McManus. Studies the Earth and is Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Columbia University
I am interested in aging in the context of the ocean depths, and how water moves from the surface to the abyss and then spreads through the depths from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. In this case, aging refers to the last contact of a portion of the water with the atmosphere. Carbon-14 and other similar isotope counters serve as aging clocks, and tell us that somewhere in the depths of the Pacific Ocean water "lives" more than a thousand years old, and also that the age of water in different parts of the ocean in the past was different.
Sarah Elwood. Geographer, Professor of Geography at the University of Washington
How does the card age? In short, quite differently than before. In the world of paper, maturation of a card has always been delicate, and sometimes not at all, in the name of preserving its value for future generations. Now, in the world of digital maps, everything is completely different. Aging of interactive maps is dynamic. They represent their past, present and future. Aging means growth, change, a sense of vitality and creativity.
Charles Briggs. Sociocultural anthropologist, professor of anthropology at the University of California
Consider how obsolete modern folklore is. Let's say something terrible happens, like 9/11 or something less in a social society. Suddenly a rumor comes out of it and everyone starts talking about it. At first, the rumors are full of truthful details. Gradually, if the public liked them and they began to actively disseminate, these details disappear, and new, non-existent ones come to replace them, and actively begin their lives. Rumors continue to spread, become richer and more coherent, acquiring more and more nuances. Not that it was all a lie, it just makes it easier to retell. Now it all depends on how many people enjoy each particular incident.
And what's next? Usually the story dies. By this time, most of the rumors and gossip had already exhausted themselves and had lost the slightest connection with reality, completely replacing it with fictions. This is the result of the aging of folklore.