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From: william@lorien.newcastle.ac.uk (William Coyne)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Ageing
Keywords: ageing
Message-ID: <1990Oct28.115724.7345@newcastle.ac.uk>
Date: 28 Oct 90 11:57:24 GMT
Sender: news@newcastle.ac.uk
Reply-To: W.P.Coyne@newcastle.ac.uk
Organization: Chemical & Process Engineering Dept, University of Newcastle, UK.
Lines: 20

What are the current theories on the causes of ageing.
Here are some I have heard of 
1. Accumulation of damage to the body.
2. Caused by the slow increase or decrease of chemicals in the body.
3. Gene time bomb - evolution can remove genes which cause early death
   in a population, because the carriers are less successful reproductively
   but genes which cause late death are less likely to be removed.  And
   genes which kill after the animal has ceased being able to reproduce 
   will not be removed.
4. Accumulated damage to the DNA of the cells causes them to slowly go 
   wrong.

Any other suggestions?

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