‘We Are Not Programmed to Die,’ Says Nobel Laureate Venki Ramakrishnan

Venktramon Ramakrishnan, the Man DeathThe Although it doesn’t sound like a good Monika, it is: Ramakrishnan is one of the most prominent scientists in the world in the fields of structural biology and cellular processes, Old age And death. He was given a Nobel Prize in Chemistry on the 21st to discover the structure of an important cellular machine responsible for the publishing of the gene.

In addition to being a leading researcher, Ramakrishnan is also a fiery writer. After its huge success Gene machineA memoir where he describes his human and scientific journey, he revealed strongly Why do we dieA book is suggested as the name of it – properly dedicated to illustrate the mobility that controls the age and which leads to death gradually and involuntarily.

Ramakrishnan was recently in Italy in Milan, where he gave a speech in the second edition of Milan Longee Summit, it was the most important Italian event dedicated Longevity And psycho-physical welfare, organized by the brain Italia. It had the opportunity to meet him and ask him a few questions. This interview has been edited for precision and length.

Wired: Professor Ramakrishnan, important questions in your book Why do we dieThe But what exactly is death?

Venki Ramakrishnan: By death, we mean the irreversible loss of skills to act as a consistent person. It is the result of a critical system or machinery failure, for example, the heart, the brain, the lungs or the kidney failure. In this sense there is an apparent paradox: when our organisms are completely alive, a few million cells in us are constantly dying and we do not understand it. On the other hand, during death, most of the cells in our body are still alive and the whole organs are still working and can be donated to the need for replacement. However, at this point the body has lost his ability to work overall. In this sense, it is important to distinguish between the death and death of the person’s cells.

Speaking of death and old age, you say in your most recent book that you “wanted to give an objective look towards our current understanding of two events.” This work was the biggest surprise or deepest captured that you had to recover when writing and researching it?

There have been several surprises. One is death, in contrast to what one can think, is not programmed by our genes. Evolution does not consider how long we survive, but only by choosing the ability to pass our genes, it is known as “fitness” in evolutionary biology. Thus, the features that are selected are the ones that help us to escape and reproduce from our childhood. And it is these features, in the later life, it causes aging and decline.

Another curious quest is that the age is not caused by cable wear and tear. Wear and tear constantly occur in all living things, yet different species have very different lifespan. Instead, the organism is effective in the lifetime and the expenditure of the resources needed to repair it and the requirements for keeping it, mature and it are healthy until it reproduces and cherish the offspring.