On 5/16/2014 12:55 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:
It turns out the carbon atoms in the DNA of neural cells is remarkable
long lived, as chronicled via the radiation spike due to atmospheric
nuclear weapons testing in 50s & 60s. I don't have a cite on hand,
but the result is that your neuronal DNA is on average about two years
younger than your own age. For most other cell types, the average age
is around 7 years, or something like that.
That looks like the age of the cell, but all piece of DNA are changed many times,
Do you mean replaced by a copy as part of cell metabolism (which I think happens on cell
division? Or do you mean each DNA molecule suffers random changes during the life of a
cell - due to radiation, etc.
so the age of a DNA does not seem to me to be necessarily the age of the atoms making
the structure.
Of course the carbon atoms were produce in a super nova and are likely millions
of years old.
brain is the place where the metabolic activity is the highest, so I am not sure our
neurons are so stable at the constitutive level.
The common theory is that long term memories are encoded by growth and change in neuronal
axons and synaptic connections, which would take metabolic activity. But it wouldn't
require changes in neuron cell DNA.
Brent
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