Deaths, Cancers, Geniuses, Icons

07-Oct-2011
It is with great sadness I update this post.
Steve Jobs is no more with us.
I have only read about Edison in text books.
Steve Jobs is the Thomas Edison of our times.
I am fortunate to have lived in the same time as Steve Jobs.

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12-March-2009
I have till now read only six auto/biographies. For some reason all men:

Alexander (fictionalized history - a triology by Valerio Massimo Manfredi: Child of a Dream, The Sands of Ammon, The Ends of The Earth)
Ramanujam (The Man Who Knew Infinity: The Life of the Genius Ramanujam by Robert Kanigel),
Steve Job (iCon Steve Jobs by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon),
Richard Feynman (Genius: Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick)
Lance Armstrong (It's not about the bike: My Journey Back to Life), and
Andy Grove (Andy Grove: The Life and Time of an American Business Icon by Richard S Tadlow)

Now, consider this ...

Alexander, died young.
Ramanujam, died young.
Steve Jobs, suffered from Pancreatic Cancer; survived.
Lance Armstrong, suffered from Testicular Cancer; survived.
Andy Grove, suffered from Prostrate Cancer; survived.
Richard Feynman, suffered from Abdominal Cancer; could not survive the relapse.

No, I am not trying to make any statement. That would be too stupid!
Just stating facts. Or am I?

Are We Programmed To Die?

I read this delightful little book called Survival Of The Sickest by Dr. Sharon Moalem a few weeks ago (I have blogged on survival ... here and here.)

I fall back on this book yet again to continue with my latest obsession with death (here and here).

Ok! Question time ...

Why would you do something really stupid that will result in death in the long run?
Why do people resort to excessive drinking or substance abuse when they know that this will result in a painful death later?

Answer: Perhaps, to forget the pain of the moment.

This is hardly a trade off. You give up your future for the present. Really stupid right?

Surprise! Surprise! Turns out that your body does this all the time or rather evolution does this all the time.

We are diabetic because evolution chose diabetes over painful instant death if our blood were to freeze in cold weather - the sugar in the blood reduces the freezing temperature. (You really need to read the book if you want to understand this!)

Coming back to the original question.

The cells in our body are programmed to divide and grow only about 50-60 times. After that kaput! The cell dies. If the cell had no limit to reproduce we would not age nor die. Why would evolution choose such an end?

The answer: to prevent cancer.

What is cancer?

It is an uncontrolled growth of cells.

If the cell had no limit of reproduction, cancer would spread at the slightest pretext, as there would be nothing to prevent it from doing so (there are other inbuilt prevention mechanism but a limit to endless growth is the final defence against cancer.)

So yes we are programmed to die but it is for our own good. What a weird concept!

Note: The picture used belongs to Joachim Bär (See gallery)