Monday, August 27, 2007

Longevity = life's battery.

I have always wondered, why different creatures have different life spans. Some lives for merely a few days however some go on to live for hundreds of years. So i take tortoises as an example why do these creatures live for so long? what defines a tortoise? its slow and relaxed (due to the fact that tortoises do not have much natural predators thanks to its hard shell). In contrast is the humming bird know for its rapid beat of wings (up to 70 beats per second)leads a busy life as it requires to feed on huge amount of nectar which exceeds its own body weight in a day to sustain its high metabolism rate resulting in a short life. An active creature tends to strain and wear down the body meaning that repairs have to be done to the cells in the body which uses a lot of energy... if insufficient can cause dire consequences.

So to me it seems that longevity is like life's battery, take things slowly and relax... that way it drains your battery at a slower pace. Some what this true as it applies to non living beings as well such as motors and engines, the faster RPM that they produce consumes higher volume of petrol or electricity. It can be concluded that longevity depends on how well a being can efficiently use energy available to them.

Trees are the least active as they barely move therefore they go on to live for thousands of years!!! but what a boring life... I'll rather be a tortoise. Remember stress will shorten your life, so try to relax and throw your worries away.

Hi, be like me!

1 comment:

JC said...

yea... tortoise are damn stone.