New Australian oil find

[Aaron MkII]

You guys do realize that he's stringing us all along and either moving the goalposts or dodging so he doesn't have to answer?

I miss the good trolls, this guys boring.

[Melchior]

Telomerase is the enzyme which causes the creation of a chain of specific proteins at the end of an eucaryote's DNA sequence (eucaryote: any cell with a nucleus, so essentially all lifeforms with more than one cell to them). These proteins, the telomeres, are there to minimize errors in DNA replication. So yeah, telomerase is the reason why our cells can replicate without losing half their DNA in the process. We browse Wikipedia and distill it so you don't have to.

Just to be clear here, telomeres do not codify proteins (and obviously being DNA sequences they're not proteins), they're part of the so-called structural DNA.
It's interesting to know that the enzyme telomerase (which is - sort - of a protein) is not active in adults - your telomeres only get shorter, which puts an hard limit on the number of divisions that a cell can undertake and has a role in aging. Typically cancerous cells are able to re-activate the enzyme and divide without end.

[Dr. Trainwreck]

I think this is actually considered a defeciency in the enzyme. I'd read a crackpot theory that, with enough scientific knowledge, it (could be) possible to eliminate this gradual deterioration and consequently eliminate aging itself. I know this is beyond ridiculous, but I liked the idea.

Also, I think it's kind of ironic, or just funny, how telomerase is proof that both our life and death are governed by the same process. All this talk about death being a part of life, and then we all find out that our cliched phrases are scientifically correct. Oh, and the word I was reaching for is poignant.

[Melchior]

I think this is actually considered a defeciency in the enzyme. I'd read a crackpot theory that, with enough scientific knowledge, it (could be) possible to eliminate this gradual deterioration and consequently eliminate aging itself. I know this is beyond ridiculous, but I liked the idea.

Also, I think it's kind of ironic, or just funny, how telomerase is proof that both our life and death are governed by the same process. All this talk about death being a part of life, and then we all find out that our cliched phrases are scientifically correct. Oh, and the word I was reaching for is poignant.

"In the wild" you would generally die before the shortening of telomeres would become an issue and having the enzyme artificially reactivated does increase the odds of developing tumors (the mechanism is not very well understood).
Keep in mind that aging is a multifactorial and very complex process and that even when only considering cell division lack of telomeres is not even nearly the leading problem (i.e. some cell populations really don't like to reproduce, like the auditory hair cells).

[Dr. Trainwreck]

Ok, thanks.