Collins Conference Room
Seminar
  US Mountain Time
Speaker: 
Annette Baudisch (University of Southern Denmark)

Our campus is closed to the public for this event.

Aging Across Scales

Abstract:  Evolutionary theories of senescence answer why we age and conclude that aging is inevitable. Recent work based on modeling tradeoffs between survival and reproduction has questioned this paradigm and shifted the fundamental question of "why we age?" to "why we age but others do not?". Implicitly, this work also suggests that the answer to "why we age but others do not?" is invariant to the scale of lifespan. To that end, the pace-shape framework of aging separates the scale (pace) from the pattern (shape) of aging to facilitate systematic comparison across species. Broadening the focal question, even more, to "why does anything improve, retain, or lose its functioning over time, be it living or nonliving, of natural or artificial origin, of material or nonmaterial quality?" offers a perspective that invites all disciplines to contribute answers and to uncover the laws of aging. In this endeavor, population thinking across scales may be instrumental.

Those unable to attend can stream the lecture from our YouTube channel.

Purpose: 
Research Collaboration
SFI Host: 
Amy Chen

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