Fight Aging!

A great example of the need for caution and careful reading when following science in even the more reputable mainstream media can be found at the BBC. You might recall the buzz over recent work on mitochondria and aging that implies free radical damage is not as important a mechanism of aging as thought. The folks on the Gerontology Research Group list have suggested a wait and see approach - much the same as the line taken by Aubrey de Grey in this piece:

Dr Aubrey de Grey, an expert in ageing research at the University of Cambridge, said: "This is an important study, building on similar work by a couple of other groups over the past few years.

"It would be premature to say that these studies are conclusive with regard to the role of mitochondrial mutations in ageing, but they certainly imply that cell death, especially of stem cells, can make a big difference to the rate of ageing."

He said it was important to be cautious because it was impossible to be sure that something which shortens life if you accelerate it is also lifespan-limiting when it proceeds at its natural rate.

"Ideally, we would develop mice that had better mitochondrial DNA repair and maintenance and lived longer as a result, but we don't have that result yet."

The attention-grabbing header of the article - involving large quantities of orange juice, antioxidants and the dispelling of dearly held theories - is somewhat sensationalist, even if it may not appear as such to the casual reader.