What is the biological reason for why things die?

[Blue_vision]

I think it's evolution. If you put all your resources (both genetic and environmental) into a handful of super beings, you're taking a far greater risk than if you have a bunch of little pieces of shit that die within a century. It would take a bit toll on the environment (food basically,) if death didn't naturally come to creatures.

 

[Megalodon]

I think you are refering to telomeres. These are lengths of additional DNA on the ends of the DNA double helix. Every time a cell replicates, the telomeres are shortened by a small amount. This occurs because the DNA polymerase enzyme that replicates the DNA does not run the full length of the DNA strand. Once the telomeres are fully depleted, the cell will die.
This process results in the symptoms of aging. UV light accelerates the telomere degradation because free radicals generated by the UV radiation oxidise the telomeres, meaning that a greater section of DNA is lost at each replication, so the affected cells grow "old" before their time.

 

[C95J]

I don't know, the brain is a complicated thing. No one has ever been able to fully explain it.

 

[Booze Zombie]

I think the reason was that if an organism just sat there it'd never evolve through reproduction and would just sit there for all eternity and if destroyed, would be gone forever.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Hey Escapist, so I was wondering, what is the biological reason for why things die? I know there is a thing called photo-aging (Light causes things to degrade?), is that why? Like, after a while - maybe our bodies just can't keep up with the rate of cells dying because of photo-aging?

Basically Entropy. All matter decays, all biological processes require energy and at a certain point a threshold is reached where it would require more energy to sustain the life than to let it cease.

Aging itself is caused by Free Radicals damaging the biological replication of RNA so that each progressive cell duplication is mutated until a point where it ceases to function, but IANAB.

 

[crazybombard]

It's called Biology, you learn it in school.

 

[Blind Sight]

Gradually cell regeneration becomes harder and harder, making it more difficult to hold off diseases, physical injuries and disorders, no one dies of 'old age' they die of something BECAUSE they're old.

DNA's somewhat poorly designed in that way, life should've gone with pre-Cambrian pyranosal RNA.

 

[Danzaivar]

Immortals would be an evolutionary dead end. We only need to live long enough to have kids then protect them til they're old enough to protect themselves.

 

[pigsnoutman]

90% of the time in nature, the answer is "because they're eaten".

 

[NoseDigger]

Oxygen is actually poisonous.

I think it was said that it forms free radicals (highly reactive) and then these in turn damage our DNA. something like that.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

All tissue wares down eventually making the body fail. That's why people get stiff as they get older, their muscle tissue is too worn down and the dead cells aren't being replaced as fast.

 

[Sh4dowSpec]

I do not know if this will be a good answer, but...

I read in A Brief History of Time that disorder increases as time goes by, eg candles don't unburn, cups don't unshatter, paper doesn't untear, etc. Just as well, people don't unage, cells don't undie, etc. This may be more for an overall thing, rather than something specific.


I really don't know if that is the answer, or if I even got that right, but it's something anyway. please, someone correct me if I butchered that.

What you're talking about is entropy. It's the basic principle of science that things will always naturally more from an organized state to a disorganized one, i.e. the cells and structures in an apple rotting. The human body is the same way. The cells break down over time for two main reasons; the first is the aforementioned entropy. The second is that every cell in the human body has a "cap" on it to help keep it alive and stop it from decaying; however, as cells divide and age, that cap gets thinner and thinner, eventually to the point where the cells themselves are exposed and begin to break down. This is known as oxidation.

 

[Adventurer2626]

Because they're programmed to. Life (besides us) doesn't care about individual death, it cares about propogating the species. The environment changes and if the species is to continue it must change as well. You die because you 1.1 (your kid) is better adapted to the environment via the genes and teaching you gave them and so that they don't have to compete with the less efficient you for resources. Then they die to make room for you 1.2 and so on. Try to think of it as a species cold war. Always trying to outdo the other guys. There's no metaphysical reason behind it; just life trying to perpetuate itself.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

The most basic reason is so that biological matter can be recycled. It's a commonly known fact that there is a finite amount of matter in the Universe and there is no way to create more, so in order for new life to be born, already existing life has to die.

 

[oxiclean]

I do not know if this will be a good answer, but...

I read in A Brief History of Time that disorder increases as time goes by, eg candles don't unburn, cups don't unshatter, paper doesn't untear, etc. Just as well, people don't unage, cells don't undie, etc. This may be more for an overall thing, rather than something specific.


I really don't know if that is the answer, or if I even got that right, but it's something anyway. please, someone correct me if I butchered that.

What you're talking about is entropy. It's the basic principle of science that things will always naturally more from an organized state to a disorganized one, i.e. the cells and structures in an apple rotting. The human body is the same way. The cells break down over time for two main reasons; the first is the aforementioned entropy. The second is that every cell in the human body has a "cap" on it to help keep it alive and stop it from decaying; however, as cells divide and age, that cap gets thinner and thinner, eventually to the point where the cells themselves are exposed and begin to break down. This is known as oxidation.

yes, thank you :3 I knew it was something like that, but I wasn't totally sure on much of it.

 

[SuperCombustion]

Scientific reason: Because cells can only replicate X amount of times, and that is judged by the length of a certain chain of protien in our DNA (and since I've been asked this before: no, altering, removing or even touching this chain kills or deforms you).
Quantum reason: The essence of your spiritual body loses grip on this frequency and returns to the astral plane.
Blunt reason: Without death, there would be no point to life.

 

[thegermanguy]

simple. living organisms share one common thing - DNA or RNA. to support basic function, it is necessary to replicate it and to read it in order to build proteins and other things. this processes are almost perfect, but there is always a small chance that they go wrong. if these mistakes accumulate, the basic functions will eventually break down and cause the system to collapse.
take the human body for an example. all the time, cells are destroyed and new cells grow in order to keep the body alive. theoretically, a human body does not have to die, as long as new cells gro and old cells die. so, if the human doesn't die from being damaged, it can live forever.
but the problem lies in the division of the cells itself. the process of copying the dna is almost perfect, because it has even mechanisms to repair damages and avoid errors during the process. but with many billion divisions during the lifespan of the organism, the probability of errors occuring increases more and more. so, theoretically a being doesn't have to die, but in reality, it's impossible to survive forever.

 

[firedfns13]

Hey Escapist, so I was wondering, what is the biological reason for why things die? I know there is a thing called photo-aging (Light causes things to degrade?), is that why? Like, after a while - maybe our bodies just can't keep up with the rate of cells dying because of photo-aging?

There's something called 'apoptosis' which cells enter if they have mutated DNA and the checkpoints catch it. Tumors are supposed to but they don't enter, and thus they grow out of control.

Mitochondrial aging occurs because they constantly produce oxidants which interact with membranes and other chemicals in the body. There's no way to fix mitochondrial aging because mitochondria replicate in binary fission, which both are damaged...

Light aging occurs through mutating DNA and by ionizing water or creating other oxidants, which results in damage to organelles and DNA and whatnot.

 

[HentMas]

In humans- Because the brain stops functioning. That's what it all comes down to.
If any of the vital organs fail, it will in turns eventually lead to brain failure and then you die.

Yes, but WHY would the brain just suddenly stop functioning? Even in a perfectly healthy person?

because the cells of the brain are the only ones that "stop" reproducing after a few years, so if any of them "shuts down" by say, a flash of light (that commonly happens when you open your courtines) you would be missing some cells from your brain

untill there are so much missing that you just die.