Aging & evolutionary biology
Josh Mitteldorf is best known for promoting the theory that aging is not “wearing out” but rather an evolved program that limits lifespan. The surprising fact that our bodies are genetically programmed to age and to die offers an enormous opportunity for medical intervention. He began blogging about aging on this site in 2012. His guidance for a long life is at AgingAdvice.org. His two books on aging are available at Amazon and elsewhere.
Mitteldorf’s PhD is in astrophysics. Since about 2020, he has taken up a new challenge as curator and critic of science on the fringe, writing about promising science that the science establishment has unjustly neglected.
In other areas of life, Mitteldorf’s two daughters were among the first girls to be adopted from China in the 1980s. He has taught a weekly yoga class for fifty years. He is an avid amateur musician, playing piano in chamber groups, French horn in community orchestras. Follow his other writing at mitteldorf.substack.com, and listen to his poetry on YouTube.
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Here is a press release for an article of mine that will appear next month in American Naturalist, demonstrating mathematically how aging might be able to evolve, despite its individual cost, based on increased evolvability at the population level.
Aug 6, 2014
I always appreciate the opportunity to learn from your comments, the more so when I have ventured outside my expertise.
Jul 28, 2014
The conventional view of the origin of life is that some combination of simple-enough chemicals was able to catalyze the synthesis of the same chemicals, and…
Jul 21, 2014
Vegetarians outlive non-vegetarians by several years. The result may be largely (or entirely) due to lower weight, and higher consumption of fresh vegetables and fruits, rather than to an adverse effect of meat per se.
Jul 15, 2014
Last March, I wrote a column entitled Reality Check, featuring the work of Stephen Spindler.
Jun 26, 2014
THE world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
Jun 18, 2014
Last week, an article about the cell biology of fasting made headlines in the science news press.
Jun 12, 2014
Mea culpa. Almost three weeks ago I promised to do a little reading and report back on what to believe about cholesterol and heart disease.
Jun 4, 2014
Cardiovascular disease is the #1 cause of death in the developed world, and for more than 50 years, standard medical advice has been that the best thing we can do to lower our risk of CVD is to reduce saturated fats in our diet.
May 14, 2014
I did a series last fall [1, 2, 3] on the thesis that aging is a program of self-destruction, executed under the control of hormonal signals in the blood.
May 5, 2014
Curcumin is extracted from the turmeric root, a common Indian spice with a long tradition of healing applications.
May 1, 2014
If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you have probably figured out that I came to the science of aging through evolutionary biology, and that I believe evolutionary thinking is a key to understanding what aging is and how it can be addressed.
Apr 23, 2014
