A Chilean astrophysicist discovered that mammals breathe about 400 million times throughout their existence
the scientist Andrés Escalaastrophysicist and academic at the Department of Astronomy of the University of Chile, Doctor of the Yale University and associate researcher of Stanford, just published research that promises revolutionize what is known about life on Earth.
This, since after analyzing 16 mammals through a mathematical crossing between their respiratory cycles and their life expectancy, he managed to establish what he has called “the number of life”, which would correspond to around 400 million breaths that a mammal takes throughout its existence and that it would be constant among the species studied, according to a note from Cooperative.
“The finding proves that a series of variables like the body mass, metabolism and heart rate influence life expectancy through the existence of this number and are causally connected to the longevity”, Escala pointed out.
According to the researcher, the animals would have “approximately the same number in terms of respiratory cycles. For example, a cat typically lives twice as long as a rabbit (18 vs 9 years, a difference of 100%), but in respiratory cycles both range from 400 million (495 vs 429, a difference of 15%)” .
Escala assures that this figure would be the same for all members of the animal kingdom, be these “mice or giraffes”.
“For example, Galapagos tortoises have a life expectancy of 177 years, reaching – on average – 280 million respiratory cycles. If the simile is made with our friends, dogsthese average 310 million cycles, but only live about 10% as long as turtles. The above reinforces the conclusion that Respiratory cycles would be the key unit to measure life extension”he explained.
The study will also serve to analyze the relationship between respiratory cycles and mutations at the cellular levelanother “number of life” that suggests that the respiratory process – and the toxic byproducts generated by it – would be linked to the genetic variations that cause aging.
Escala assured that two lines of future work are now open: “The first is in applied scienceto explain the natural mortality of farmed fish in the fishing industry. The second is in basic sciencewhere its implications could be studied for certain observed ecological relationships”, he detailed.
His research was based on the scientific article titled “The impact of the cardiovascular component and somatic mutations on aging”, in which its authors used traditional statistical methods for their analysis.
The Chilean scientist, on the other hand, applied previously validated mathematical predictions, which, when contrasted with the data of the 16 species of mammals studied in the article, managed to explain their theory.
Their research was published in the latest edition of the journal Scientific Reports under the title “On the Causal Connection in Lifespan Correlations and the Possible Existence of a ‘Number of Life’ at Molecular Level“ (On the causal connection in the correlations of life span and the possible existence of a “life number” at the molecular level).
