The anti-aging industry is big. From face creams and hair dyes to tooth-whiteners and magic pills, we struggle to fight not only our mortality, but also our tendency to age. Remarkably, we may have a lot that we can learn from a simple and surprising animal-- the lobster.
Lobsters are immortal-- well, sort of. Although they can die as a result of external forces, including predators, fights and water pollution, no lobster has ever-- ever-- died of old age. In terms of aging, the lobster is truly immortal. There are no measurable changes in a lobster's health, resilience, reproduction, body functions, metabolism or appetite.
This remarkable feature, known as negligible senescence, remains one of the most fascinating traits occuring in nature-- and it may provide insight into our own aging process. In theory, a lobster could live for hundreds, or even thousands, of years if it lived in ideal conditions and was left unmolested by predators and competitors. In ideal (and completely hypothetical) circumstances, it would be possible for a five-thousand-year-old lobster to continue with all the normal activities of a lobster's life, including reproduction.
However, the lobster's apparent immortality is still not fully understood. We don't know why lobsters differ so fundamentally from humans, or how their cells manage to undergo years of wear-and-tear without any notable damage. Nor do we know if this can offer us practical information, such as the ability to understand age-related human problems such as cataracts and arthritis.
The next time you sink your teeth into a bite of Maine lobster tail, chew on this: you may be eating a creature who hatched during the Civil War. And that same animal's brother may be here long after your own grandchildren have passed away.