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COLONY CONSTRAINTS. “One interesting prediction of the model is that selection generally favors cycles with group level properties when intermediate body size is associated with lowest mortality. That is, a universal requirement for the evolution of group cycles in the model is that the size-mortality curve be U-shaped. Furthermore, growth must decelerate with size.” http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040580915000222 View in LinkedIn

FOOTNOTE. "There is evidence that even in "symmetric" cell division, one child cell may be slightly "younger" (less prone to death) than the other. Aging and death in an organism that reproduces by morphologically symmetric division." https://www.quora.com/Death-and-Dying-According-to-the-theory-of-evolution-why-do-we-die View in LinkedIn

TRANSITIONS TO COLONIES. “We develop a conceptual framework in which three fundamental processes (growth, division, and splitting) are the scaffold for unicellular and multicellular life cycles alike. We demonstrate how changes in the regulation of three fundamental aspects of colonial form (cell size, colony size, and colony cell number) could lead unicellular life cycles to evolve into primitive multicellular life cycles with group properties.” http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040580915000222 View in LinkedIn

REBOOTING THE SYSTEM. "Complex organisms accumulate billions of errors and problems over their lifetime. Most of these errors are fixed as fast as they happen, but life takes a toll and not all problems are reversible. Just as reinstalling Microsoft Windows every so often fixes accumulated system issues, so does generating a new organism every so often from a single cell." https://www.quora.com/Death-and-Dying-According-to-the-theory-of-evolution-why-do-we-die View in LinkedIn

INDEFINITE REPAIR? "Even the increase of thermodynamic entropy can be counteracted indefinitely in an open system with a constant input of neguentropy. So there is no a priori reason why living systems would not be able to indefinitely maintain and repair their structural organization." http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/evolage.html View in LinkedIn

CLEAN SLATE VS MAINTENANCE. "The strategy that multicellular organisms such as humans use to project themselves into the future is to create new cell colonies from a single undifferentiated cell rather than maintaining existing colonies indefinitely. The main reason is that reproduction is more flexible and robust than maintenance, and it provides a way of starting over with a "clean slate" and slightly different genes." https://www.quora.com/Death-and-Dying-According-to-the-theory-of-evolution-why-do-we-die View in LinkedIn

MEIOSIS. "Our own process of reproduction (meiosis) is merely a more complicated version of this, in which just a few cells (sex-cells or germ-line cells) can indefinitely reproduce, while the other cells die after a while." http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/evolage.html View in LinkedIn

IMMORTAL CELL? "Every single-celled organism alive today has been in existence since life began over 3 billion years ago. This is because individual cells do not give birth, they divide. After cell division, the two cells that result are each as old as the single cell that preceded them. The cell does not become younger by dividing. (Although this may not be exactly true). Thus every cell in your body is over 3 billion years old." https://lnkd.in/d4CsfeX View in LinkedIn

IMMORTAL CELLS. "Indeed, it is well-known that primitive organisms (e.g. bacteria, algae, protozoids, ...) are in a sense immortal. That is, when they reproduce (by mere splitting of cells) there is no difference between "parent" and "offspring": both splitted cells continue to survive, and undergo further splits, without any apparent aging or senescence." http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/evolage.html View in LinkedIn

THE WHY NOT? "On the other hand, we might imagine genes stopping the process of aging. There are enough examples of self-repair mechanisms in cells and organisms to suggest that this is possible. Moreover, the fact that genes themselves are immortal should be sufficient to counter any arguments based on uncontrollable deterioration because of the second law of thermodynamics." (Genes have a life cycle too). http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/evolage.html View in LinkedIn