Mark Twain is a poetic sh**, but you prefer to think that you will go to a shiny fluffy place in the sky?
When DNA replicates, at the end of replication there is a small overlap where the two new strands do not perfectly line up. So, part (a very very small part) of the DNA is lost. Luckily, cells have things called "telomeres" on the DNA which is basically non-coding DNA which, when it is "cut off" does not harm us. But the older we get, the shorter the telomere "tails" get, and so it's more "difficult" for DNA replication to properly happen. This is probably why clones have a shorter life expectancy. Oddly, cancer has a certain enzyme which "fixes" the telomere loss and so cancer can divide forever. There is a living strain from the... 50s, I believe?
As for what we wish... perhaps it would be nice to live a bit longer, (though I think I'd get bored) so that's a good point. But does wishing for something make a difference as to what actually happens?
When DNA replicates, at the end of replication there is a small overlap where the two new strands do not perfectly line up. So, part (a very very small part) of the DNA is lost. Luckily, cells have things called "telomeres" on the DNA which is basically non-coding DNA which, when it is "cut off" does not harm us. But the older we get, the shorter the telomere "tails" get, and so it's more "difficult" for DNA replication to properly happen. This is probably why clones have a shorter life expectancy. Oddly, cancer has a certain enzyme which "fixes" the telomere loss and so cancer can divide forever. There is a living strain from the... 50s, I believe?
As for what we wish... perhaps it would be nice to live a bit longer, (though I think I'd get bored) so that's a good point. But does wishing for something make a difference as to what actually happens?
