• Question: i know this may sound stupid but is there such thing as immortalness or invincibility?

    Asked by slmg to David, Helen, Ian, rhysphillips, Sarah on 24 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: David Corne

      David Corne answered on 20 Jun 2011:


      There is no physical or biological law that actually prevents you from living for millions of years, but this sort of thing is never good for the species (if all your ancestors were still alive, no-one would have anything to eat), so evolution tends to build in self-destruct devices. You live from year to year because most of your cells keep making copies of themselves. One of the self-destruct devices is the fact that the cells don’t make perfect copies — so, over time, the errors mount up and the cells get less and less effective at what they’re meant to do. We are getting more and more able to do something about this though. Invincibilty? I’m pretty sure that’s impossible – there’s nothing that can’t be broken without enough input of energy.

    • Photo: Ian van der Linde

      Ian van der Linde answered on 20 Jun 2011:


      Did you know that some Jellyfish are actually immortal?! Because they are constructed from cells that replicate without error (a bit like our sperm cells), they regenerate perfectly. They could still die in a skiing accident of course. — So, yes, immortality does exist!

    • Photo: Rhys Phillips

      Rhys Phillips answered on 20 Jun 2011:


      David is right – we are not programmed to die. And I’ve learned something new from Ian about Jellyfish! But I don’t think anyone is invincible apart from Captain Scarlet.

    • Photo: Helen Fletcher

      Helen Fletcher answered on 24 Jun 2011:


      Well there’s always Superman!

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