Children of older fathers are more likely to live longer, researchers have claimed.
They found an individual’s telomeres, “caps” on the ends of chromosomes that protect against the ageing process, lengthened not only with their father’s age at their birth but also with their paternal grandfather’s age at their father’s birth.
The researchers measured the telomere length of DNA in the blood of 1,779 young Filipino adults and their mothers and determined the ages of the children’s fathers and grandfathers. Each year a man delayed reproduction increased the length of the telomeres.
The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest delayed paternal reproduction cou-ld increase their offsprings’ telomere length, which could promote long life, the Daily Mail reported.
Telomeres appear to be central to biological ageing, with longer telomeres a sign of being biologically younger and healthier.
Professor Chris Kuzawa, an anthropologist at North-western University in the US, said telomeres shorten with time in most cells, but they lengthen in sperm. A previous study found those with shorter telomeres were three times as likely to die from heart disease.
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Nod to world’s most powerful telescope
Paris: A plan to build the world’s most powerful optical telescope, able to scour the heavens for planets that could sustain life, has cleared an important hurdle, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) said. Two-thirds of ESO’s governing council approved the so-called European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), which opens the way to starting work on the project, the consortium announced late on Monday. The 1.083-billion-euro scheme entails building a telescope with a massive light-catching mirror 39.3 metres wide, several times the size of the biggest optical telescopes today. It will be sited on Cerro Armazones in northern Chile, close to ESO’s existing Paranal Obs-ervatory, where the extremely arid conditions and high altitude — 3,060 metres— offer excellent viewing of the skies. — AFP