If a woman gets pregnant in a place where you no longer age, will the stuff develop?

[DaBiggestBird]

[shortster]

Just age? Because there is a difference between age and maturation. Aging is a mechanism of delayed sceneances. In humans, as well as a number of other species, we have Telomeres at the end of our chromosomes. These are areas of junk DNA that protects the useful DNA in our chromosomes. As DNA polymerase makes copies our DNA by starting at a primer segment and then moving down the chain. The primer section is lost when copied unless you have a circular chromosome. Which only exists in bacteria; multicellular organisms have too much DNA on their chromosomes for them to remain circular and fit in the nucleus of the cell. This is done by hypercoilling the chromosome (Take a rubber band and twist it as many times as you can; then cut it and see how many times you can twist it. After cutting the rubber band it is a lot easier to add more twists to it.). So every time you copy your DNA, which is done every time your cells devide; and that occurs at the same rate as your metabolism, your DNA gets shorter. As it gets shorter, you lose those sections of junk DNA and then begin to lose useful DNA. And that is how we age. Now this would also be a generational problem as each generation would have shorter Telomeres than the previous generation if it wasn't for telomerase; which increases the length of telomeres on our chromosomes. However, this is only active in our gonads; where our sperm and egg cells are made. Whereas other organisms that don't undergo aging it is active throughout those organisms. So in order to stop aging in humans, we would need to find a way to activate telomerase in the rest of our cells.

[DaBiggestBird]

So the child would develop

[shortster]

Yes.

[DaBiggestBird]

So I guess the affect would occur after birth

[shortster]

It would be most notable around 30 or 40

[NathanDavis]

yes... technically, you don't start aging till you are born

also, every cell and organ (ism) in a body can still develop and cycle back to itself without "decay" which is why it would keep you at the "same age"

[IslaTheWitch]

@NathanDavis cells are maturing before aging :D

[NathanDavis]

@IslaTheWitch chronologically, yes...

but, physiologically speaking... some organisms do not age, like lobsters...

[IslaTheWitch]

@NathanDavis all organisms are aging... one way or another... and it's true that lobsters don't die because of their age and have extraordinarily long lives... but they do age, just much slower... they are also not prepared by evolution to grow so big (they grow as long as they live)... so they die from other reasons...

[NathanDavis]

@IslaTheWitch okay, let's get a bit technical... lol

lobsters do age, yes... not precisely because it happens slower, it is because their organisms can repair themselves endlessly, so... if we do say that aging is the fact that organisms do deteriorate and therefore decay at some point, lobsters do not have to go through this, they just repair their organisms every time

but there's also jelly fish... some types of jelly fish, do something even more drastic, while they do age, yes... and mature, yes, and they can reach this maturity, reproduce and all that, whenever they run into trouble like damage or deterioration, they can REVERT "their age" this means, they can "devolve" to a previous stage of their lives, and they can be a "young" thing again... so in a sense they do "de-age" lmao

and finally... you have the hydras, which are the ones who actually don't go through "aging" because they do regenerate themselves through their stem cells which have an excess of "instant renovation" of cells rather than "repair damage over time"

if there's no decay because there's no deterioration then you're not really "aging" in the regular sense of the word, lol

[IslaTheWitch]

@NathanDavis all of them die... if not of age... then because they are slower, weaker, easier to catch, or like lobsters... not prepared to deal with the endlessly growing bodies... so for them all the time has already stopped, right? but it changed totally nothing...

[NathanDavis]

@IslaTheWitch except the ones... that haven't, lol

[DaBiggestBird]

Didn’t know we had so many scientists here. That’s kind of cool

[NathanDavis]

" Telomere length shortens with age. Progressive shortening of telomeres leads to senescence, apoptosis, or oncogenic transformation of somatic cells, affecting the health and lifespan of an individual. Shorter telomeres have been associated with increased incidence of diseases and poor survival. "

[IslaTheWitch]

what does it mean "place where you do not age"? did the time stop there?

because aging is tied to the time flow... our cells live shorter lives with time... they are replaced less often...

so if the time stopped for mother cells... the child is a separate organism, even if connected... so for them, time flows, and the child develops...

if for the child cells' time also stopped... then it stopped... and the child won't develop...

[DaBiggestBird]

Time sort of doesn’t exist

[IslaTheWitch]

we are beings tied to time... we can perceive changes because they happen in time... if there is no time many things won't work for us lol

[DaBiggestBird]

Of course they can. Imagine you plant a seed for a redwood tree and then enter a door. You sit in there for what feels like 50 years. When you come out, nothing happens. It’s the exact same moment you entered.