Make humans less sensitive to aging and more fertile by studying the queens of bees: this is the project of the Invention and Advanced Research Agency (ARIA), an organization recently created by the British government to conduct research “at high risk and high rewardsE ”, says the scientific news site Daily Galaxy. The idea is to look at the foraging workers, or rather on their queen, which could teach us a lot.
Indeed, the functioning of the only female fertile within an intrigue hive. Although their genetic material is almost identical to that of the workers, the queens can remain for several years, while the commoners live only a few months. In addition, the monarchs remain fertile all their lives, which seems to have a link with their exceptional longevity. By studying them more closely, the researchers hope to understand how to delay human aging.
“If we manage to disentangle and reconstruct the way in which nature has resolved these challenges for them, this could be a transformer to stop aging, prolong human fertility, improve (grafts) of organs and offer new ways to fight against the disease”enthuses Yannick Wurm, one of the project directors.
Copy nature
The implications can be numerous: slow down the process of aging cells, but also strengthen our means of fighting against diseases, improving our organ graft techniques, with the aim of living longer healthy.
This approach consisting in copying nature is called biomimicry. The functioning of the Velcro is inspired by the burning seeds, and certain medical adhesives are inspired by the capacity of the reptile Gecko to cling to the surfaces. Elsewhere, computer scientists imitate human neurons and use DNA to store data, and aeronautical manufacturers take a model on birds.
Several ARIA projects are part of this biomimetic perspective. For example, the research agency wants to replace plastic with biodegradable materials similar to those that are naturally manufactured by our environment. It also seeks to capture air electricity to provide an almost unlimited source of energy, and to manipulate our immune systems in order to make us more resistant to diseases.
With all this, is there someone to save the bees from extinction?
