• Question: why do pepole die

    Asked by dazza90king100j to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 15 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by meg123.
    • Photo: Karen Reed

      Karen Reed answered on 15 Jun 2012:

      Hiya dazza – that’s a big question. We die because life ends, and life ends becuase one or more of the vital organs (like the brain, heart, liver etc.) stop working. There are lots of ways people can die; unexpectedly due to accidents or becuase a disease has stoped the body working properly, or from extreme old age when physically things just stop working properly. Its as if all the things going on inside just run out of steam and can’t work. Its nature and the cycle of life, then life must end at some point in time. Hope that helps. great question that makes you think.

    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 17 Jun 2012:

      Hi dazza90king100j – what a handful of a screen name! 🙂
      This is the million dollar question. Basically it’s a design problem. We have evolved over millions of years to grow up into adults and have kids, who then have kids etc. There was no selective pressure (that’s what the forces that shape evolution are called) for us to live much longer than to see our kids grow up, so we never bothered to evolve in that direction. But we are trying to fix that with research into ageing and causes of death.

      However this isn’t the end – there are animals that are totally immortal! Turritopsis nutricula is a tiny jellyfish that just regenerates itself, never gets old and can live forever. There are lots of other animals that get close to that record – lobsters and flatworms for example. Here’s a list!

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_long-living_organisms

Comments