The Immortal Girl

[ArkAngel]

Apparently this girl is 18 years old but has the mental and physical abilities of an 11 month old.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,725798,00.html

What do you you guys think?

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[Avoidthetiger]

Haven't completely read the article yet, but 2 things:

1. When was this originally written? She was born in 1983... but is 18 in the article recently published... isn't she like 26 now?
2. Who original wrote this... in German?

 

[sustentacular]

If you google Brooke Greenberg you'll find much more about her... and that article must have a typo, she was born in '93.

 

[littlealex]

The pediatrician is silly to think she holds the key to immortality. The girl has a developmental disorder and cannot age, that doesn't imply she cannot die.
This is like saying mentally impaired midgets aren't actually midgets but very slow growing children.

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Just read further, it even says her telomeres reflect her actual age. Why the heck is he still talking then? Aubrey de Grey turned out to be the more reasonable of the two. Dr. Walker needs to retire for real

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Unless she hits puberty at age 50 and lives another 250 years I don't think this matters. But honestly if stem cells and nano-bots get developed and neurogenesis terns out not to warp conscious identity or cause humans to turn into zombies then immortality or at least extended life is a breath away.



Edit Numbers here are arbitrary.

 

[Wermz]

The pediatrician is silly to think she holds the key to immortality. The girl has a developmental disorder and cannot age, that doesn't imply she cannot die.
This is like saying mentally impaired midgets aren't actually midgets but very slow growing children.

There are many ways that mental and physical growth could be slowed without affecting general deterioration known as aging. Stopping aging is more than just slowing mental/physical growth like you suggest with your midgets... because aging is dying. That said, I didn't read the article and I doubt she really has slowed aging.

Edit: I think maybe I read your post wrong and that I prob agree with you

 

[morning]

The pediatrician is silly to think she holds the key to immortality. The girl has a developmental disorder and cannot age, that doesn't imply she cannot die.
This is like saying mentally impaired midgets aren't actually midgets but very slow growing children.

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Just read further, it even says her telomeres reflect her actual age. Why the heck is he still talking then? Aubrey de Grey turned out to be the more reasonable of the two. Dr. Walker needs to retire for real

He doesn't think she is necessarily immortal, from what I can glean from the article. He thinks that identifying whatever genes are irregular within her genome will help him identify the genes that he believes controls the aging process. Her eventual lifespan isn't the issue here, despite the title. No one is arguing about whether she will live forever or cannot die. They are debating why we age (whether it is, as Aubrey de Grey says, just our cells getting old and wearing out - or whether it's the other guy's belief that specific genes control aging) and whether this girl can provide evidence for whether said genes exist.

 

[Sid Farkus]

^+1.

Extending the length of life is def not the sole purpose. The main goal in age research is lengthening the vibrant years of life; shortening the decay that currently comes with old age. If researchers can make us live longer, but spend more years (the add'l years) in frailty, not many ppl are gonna jump on board.

Cue in the anti-aging skin cream ad...

Oh, and I haven't read the article either. Just inferring, yo.

 

[whoknows2012]

I've heard about this girl before and her case brings up some interesting points. First of all, I agree with some of the above posters that the point here is that within her genome we may be able to find some master control gene that is mutated that may lead to us developing ways to combat age related diseases. Immortality is irrelevant IMO and is just dramatizing an already interesting story. What is most interesting to me is that here telomeres reflect her actual age, while her bones, teeth and digestive system all reflect ages that are younger. The popular theory of aging nowadays involves shortening of telomeres, which I believe definitely plays a part, but maybe research into this girls genome will prove that there are some additional elements that supersede telomere involvement (or at least play a bigger role).

 

[NickNaylor]

I'm not sure how mental/physical ******ation = immortality. I'm guessing this is just sensationalized, although it is an interesting story.