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From: doug@feedme.UUCP (Doug Salot)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.med
Subject: Mortality
Keywords: necrology?
Message-ID: <36@feedme.UUCP>
Date: 9 Jun 88 19:15:40 GMT
Organization: Feedme Microsystems, Orange County, CA
Lines: 22

In pondering good topics of conversation for dinner parties, I
suddenly realized that I don't know what that branch of science
is called in which aging and death are studied (I don't believe
gerontology is considered a research discipline).  Could someone
enlighten me?  (I'm sure many of you could, but I mean specifically
about the study of death.)

Before I run out and subscribe to Death Today or Popular Dying,
does anyone want to give a rundown of current theory on the
subject?  What cellular organelles are depletable (assuming
suitable nutrients are available from the environment)?  Have
the mechanisms which determine whether (or how) a cell becomes
specialized and stops dividing been elucidated?

Oh, and while I'm at it, what is the standard definition of human
death these days?  Is it flatline for some time span?  If so, what
area of the brain is being monitored?  Are there estimates for the
amount of cellular damage as function of CNS (or CV) inactivity time?

Thanks for your indulgence.
-- 
Doug Salot || doug@feedme.UUCP || {trwrb,hplabs}!felix!dhw68k!feedme!doug
Feedme Microsystems:Inventors of the Snarf->Grok->Munge Development Cycle