Old Age In the Embryo: My New Matter Column for the New York Times

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PHOTO BY ED UTHMAN VIA CREATIVE COMMONS

One of the hallmarks of aging is a process called senescence. Cells stop dividing and release a distinctive blend of chemicals that cause inflammation and other effects. It’s thus a big surprise that scientists have now found senescent cells in embryos. For my new column for the New York Times, I take a look at this remarkable similarity between old and new–and how it changes our understanding of how we developed from an egg. Check it out. 

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Signs of Aging, Even in the Embryo

Posted on by Lori Jia

The New York Times, November 21, 2013

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In 1961, two biologists named Leonard Hayflick and Paul Moorehead discovered that old age is built into our cells. At the time, many scientists believed that if healthy human cells were put in a flask with a steady supply of nutrients, they would multiply forever. But when Dr. Hayflick and Dr. Moorehead reared fetal human cells, that’s not what they found. Time and again, their cells would divide about 50 times and then simply stop.

Cells that stop growing this way came to be known as senescent.

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A Long Way Left Up Darwin’s Mountain

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TABLE MOUNTAIN. BY WARRENSKI VIA CREATIVE COMMONS

One of the things I like about a long-running blog is that I can revisit long-running stories whenever I feel like it. And one of the longest of those stories has been unfolding in a lab at Michigan State University since 1988. That year, a biologist named Richard Lenski began rearing Escherichia coli from a single microbe. The bacteria, which he raised in a dozen separate flasks, all faced the same challenge: endure a starvation diet that their lab-pampered ancestors had not suffered.

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Wolf to Dog: Scientists Agree on How, but Not Where

Posted on by Lori Jia

The New York Times, November 14, 2013

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Where did dogs come from? That simple question is the subject of a scientific debate right now. In May, a team of scientists published a study pointing to East Asia as the place where dogs evolved from wolves. Now, another group of researchers has announced that dogs evolved several thousand miles to the west, in Europe.

This controversy is intriguing even if you’re not a dog lover. It illuminates the challenges scientists face as they excavate the history of any species from its DNA.

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Where Dogs Are From: My New Column for the New York Times

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VISCOUNT GORMANSTON’S WHITE DOG. BY GEORGE STUBBS

I suspect I will be writing about the science of dogs as long as I’m writing about science at all. These creatures, despite being so familiar, have so much left to reveal. For my new “Matter” column at The New York Times, I look at the latest research on the origin of dogs, based on new analysis of DNA from ancient dog (or wolf?) fossils. For now, there’s a battle over where dogs first called home. Check it out.

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