What naked mole rats teach about aging

Here at AGF we care a lot about ensuring basic scientific research gets funded and conducted well, and this piece in Works in Progress by Aria Schrecker is a nice illustration of why that kind of work can matter in achieving a prosperous, healthy future for humans. Schrecker examines the characteristics of species that can outlive humans: lobsters, quahog clams, “the immortal jellyfish,” Greenland sharks, Aldabra tortoises, bowhead whales, and naked mole rats. That’s an astonishingly diverse list, including vertebrates and invertebrates; aquatic and land animals; mammals, fish, and reptiles. But Schrecker argues that some of the things they have in common, like slow metabolisms, could hold useful lessons for human longevity.