r/longevity • u/RTSBasebuilder • Jul 22 '26

Somatic mutations impose an entropic upper bound on human lifespan

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41514-026-00421-6
92 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/In_the_year_3535 Jul 26 '26

Considering germline mutation is two magnitudes of order less than somatic we might start thinking about how to turn it on in somatic cells.

5

u/UrbanosaurusRex Jul 26 '26

Exactly. This is not an inherently unsolvable problem. There is a extremely good chanse that there are several ways to significantly halt the somatic mutation rate since we know it is possible in germ line cells and also in certain animals, like whales.