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Meet an African cousin, the Naked Mole Rat. Cute ain't he? Not all of us arrived in the UK with the Black Death, some emigrated to the colonies but usually in small close knit family numbers. Here you see the result of a lot of inbreeding. Apart from shedding the velveteen pantaloons we have had a considerable wallop with the ulgy stick and some orthodontics wouldn't go amiss. However, one benefit to the kissing cousins seems to have been some unusual proteins which are deemed to contribute to an extraodinarily long life...for a rat.
It's all to do with folding and unfolding protein molecules apparently, which fold and unfold periodically and, anyone who's tried to fold a Landranger map numerous times will tell you, the process causes damage and that damage causes ageing. So it seems that studying the process by which the naturist rodents practice their origami skills might help us extend our useful life for a few decades. Just think how many Twitters you could fit into that time frame. I can't wait. (via The Register )
