Immortal lobsters

ReX.be · Sep 10, 2011

Many have spent their whole lives searching for the secret to eternal youth, travelling far and wide and wasting their fortunes â€” all in vain. In modern times, that mad quest has been replaced by a slightly more attainable goal: to slow, if not stop, timeâ€™s marking of flesh by means of pills, superstition and surgery. Unfortunately, as Cher and Dolly Parton bear unwitting witness, the key word in the above sentence is â€œslightly.â€

What would these people have done if they realized their holy grails were right beneath their noses?

Or more appropriately, on their plates.

The key to eternal youth is held by none other than the common lobster. Yes, the lobster: red-shelled, big-clawed and six-legged. The same animal whose presence on the menu always drew furtive glances from you, which always ended in disappointment, either because you couldnâ€™t buy such a dish or you did and found it less than valuable. Look into their beady eyes and know the secrets of immortality.

Lobsters never age, they just grow. Their bodies donâ€™t become frailer in time, they donâ€™t need more and more medicine to keep their hearts going and they donâ€™t even lose their sexual potency. In fact, the older a lobster, the more fertile it becomes.

The secret to these oceanic Dorian Grays is an enzyme by the name of telomerase. Telomerase affects telomeres, which are found on the end of all chromosomes and protect these chromosomes from deterioration. However, each time a cell divides, its telomeres are shortened. Eventually, the telomeres become too short to protect the chromosomes and cells begin to lose their ability to divide (known as the Hayflick Limit).

Telomerase acts as a sort of add-on, restoring length to telomeres and thus enabling them to continue protecting the cell. In most animals (including humans), telomerase production rapidly declines with age â€” hence, the whole dying part.

Lobsters, however, donâ€™t stop producing telomerase; in fact, while most animals show higher levels of telomerase in certain areas of their bodies, lobsters have the enzyme in abundance throughout their body. Couple that with the fact that lobsters shed and recreate their exoskeletons, and thereâ€™s nothing to stop a lobster from growing indefinitely.

Except for things eating them, which tends to happen a lot. In fact, after a certain point, the larger a lobster grows the harder it is for the creature to stay alive, since the places it hides from predators become increasingly inaccessible the bigger the lobster gets.

Protected, lobsters have been proven to be incredibly long lived. January of 2009, a New York restaurant freed an allegedly 140-year-old lobster that weighed in at a whopping 20 lbs (which essentially means â€œGiant Georgeâ€ â€” as he was affectionately known â€” was given a death sentence). Currently, Boston University professor Jelle Atema is keeping a lobster to see how big it can grow.

I can hear some of your minds whirring. Youâ€™re thinking: â€œIâ€™m not in any danger of being eaten, so give me some of that lobster juice.â€ Unfortunately (or maybe not), the lobster path to immortality is strictly inaccessible for humans. It turns out cell deterioration in the human body is a relatively good thing. In humans, cells that surpass the Hayflick Limit tend to become cancerous. So where lobsters get eaten from the outside, weâ€™d be devoured from within.

There you have it. The secret to immortality is useless for humans. If youâ€™re feeling particularly vengeful, go buy a lobster dinner and console yourself with the thought that even though youâ€™ll never live forever, neither will that particular lobster. Or you might go to an aquarium and gaze upon this red crustacean with a little bit more awe. Or you could do what I do, which is to buy a lobster, sit with it in public places, stroke its shell and whisper, â€œSoon ... soon, my precious.â€

Whatever you do, I hope a little bit of your mind was blown by the immortal lobster.
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140 years old lobster

Killvion · Sep 10, 2011

That is just pure awesomeness! inb4 the 50.000 year old lobster emerges from the Mariana Trench and kills us all. (Or at least in a hollywood film)

nemonorm · Sep 10, 2011

I knew about the enzyme that rebuilds the telomeres but only knew that cancers had it, not that lobsters had it.

And it wouldn't surprise me if a film like that was made Kill.

antou(fr) · Sep 10, 2011

Dat claws.

That's impressive, one animal made to grow forever...

ReX.be · Sep 10, 2011

nemonorm said:

I knew about the enzyme that rebuilds the telomeres but only knew that cancers had it, not that lobsters had it.

And it wouldn't surprise me if a film like that was made Kill.
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lobster movies arent as succesfull dho...was hoping for a japanese monster movie :s
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1QrcLj4_lE[/youtube]

Immortal lobsters

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