Lyric Abbott
October 15, 2016
Core Biology
Current Event #5
What’s the Longest Humans Can Live? 115 Years, New Study Says
In the article, What’s the Longest Humans Can Live? 115 Years, New Study Says published in the New York Times by Carl Zimmer, it is stated that humans will begin dying at younger ages in the future and researchers say that 115 years is most likely the longest humans will live. There is a lot of debate occurring between scientists when it comes to this topic and the theory that humans are living short lives is very controversial. Many researchers have found that a child born in the US in 1900 had an average life expectancy just under 50 years, while a child born today is expected to live on average to age 79. Although humans have begun living longer and longer over time, researchers also say, “The shift toward growth in ever-older populations started slowing in the 1980s; about a decade ago, it stalled.” Dr. Vijg, an expert on aging at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine continues to do further research on this topic and has come to state his theory that humans will in fact living shorter lives in the years to come. Dr. James W. Vaupel, the director of the Max-Planck Odense Center on the Biodemography of Aging, has “long rejected the suggestion that humans are approaching a life span limit.” He disagrees with Vijg’s theory and bases his research in the trends of survival in the 1900’s.
This new research has a big impact on society because we have now found evidence that can affect human lives for future generations. Although research is still being done, it is likely that Dr. Vijg theory is correct and humans can only live up to the age of 115 and no further. “The fastest-growing portion of society has been old people, Dr. Vijg found. In France in the 1920s, for example, the fastest-growing group of women was the 85-year-olds. Instead, the increases slowed down and appear to have stopped. When Dr. Vijg and his students looked at data from 40 countries, they found the same overall trend.” The article proved that this trend in data occurs in other countries, not just the US, which has a big impact in not only America's but the entire world.
I thought the author of this article did a very good job getting his point across about how humans are living shorter lives. I liked how he gave two sides to the argument by including the two researchers and their opinions on the topics as well as the research they have done which provides the reader with more evidence. I think some parts of the article could have been stronger. For example, I think the author could have interviewed more scientists on their research which could have helped compare the two sides better and also provided more evidence as to why this decrease in age is occurring in humans, because I felt that some parts of the research were a bit vague. I also felt that the article ended a bit abruptly and did not have a proper explanation and conclusion. I think the author can improve for next time by interviewing more scientists and writing a proper conclusion that satisfies the reader properly. Overall though, I learned a lot from this article and found it very interesting that although we have a lot more medicine and cures for certain illnesses compared to the 1900’s, humans are still dying earlier today and most likely will continue to in the future.
My fellow student Lyric Abbott wrote a good current event about the article, What’s the Longest Humans Can Live? 115 Years, New Study Says. In her current event she uses the information she has very well and implements quotes from her article which helps to validate the points that she has made. This is important because without proof or a justifiable explanation a statement is just statement. I also thought that she structured her paragraph very well by giving both sides of the argument then comparing them. This structure allows for the reader to make their own assumptions before the writer shares their own. At the end of her current event I thought she made very good assumptions about the topic and had evidence to back her up. Her evidence was taken directly from scientist which makes it more credible.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I thought that Lyric did a very good job of writing her current event I noticed some flaws with it. The article that she reported on mentioned that modern medicine can help a lot with life expectancies by curing diseases and also helping to prolong the effects of cancer and other currently incurable diseases. This is a very important point and I found that it would have made the other side's argument better. She could simply have mentioned this in her current event and it would have made it better. I also thought that the other side to the argument, which is that humans lives are still increasing in years, was underrepresented because there is some very compelling arguments that prove its point. One of these arguments is that the world is becoming more environmentally conscious and aware of the effects of deforestation and releasing toxic fumes into the air. If both sides of the point were equally balanced it would have made the current event more thought provoking for the reader. This problem can be solved by putting equal amounts of evidence on both sides.
From this article I came to realize that the science world cannot accurately depict the amount of yer that someone lives on average for the future. What it comes down to is personal care and how you as an individual treat yourself. This article taught me that predicting how long humans are going to live is not easy and takes rigorous research. This article taught me personally that being healthy will make you live far past the normal life expectancy and living unhealthily will make you live much shorter. I already knew this but this article solidified my perspective.
ReplyDeleteMy classmate Lyric wrote a really good review on "What's the Longest Humans Can Live? New Study Says." In this review, Lyric does a good job with summarizing what the article is about. The beginning of her review wanted me to go on with the reading and it made me excited to find out more on this topic. Furthermore, I like it how she included the statistics of life expectancy and how it has changed overtime. This gave me a greater knowledge of the research that was being done. One other thing that I thought she did a good job with was that she stated the person conducting the research and she talked about his theory and compared it with another scientist's theory. For me, that is useful because it gives me two different sides to this research and it is beneficial to have multiple perspectives especially when doing research like life expectancy.
While Lyric did a nice job writing this review, there were a few flaws. For example, Lyric could have explained more about how the research was being done. That would have made the review much more detailed. In addition, Lyric could have also made the review more specific by talking more about the trends that she stated in the article. That is another way to make the review a little bit more detailed.
Overall, Lyric did a really good job writing this thought provoking and well informed review. From this review, I have gained more knowledge of life expectancy and its change overtime. I knew a little bit about life expectancy but from reading this review, I have picked up more information such as the fact that people now can only live to a maximum of 115 years old. I also couldn't believe that people are now dying earlier even with the advancements with medicine and science as a whole. These types of facts were fascinating and interesting to me. From taking a look at this review, I hope that more articles on this subject can come out because it will make more people aware about their futures and what they can do to live a long sustaining life.
Tommy Purdy
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
Biology D-Odd
17 October, 2016
Current Event Comment
What’s the Longest Humans Can Live? 115 Years, New Study Says
Zimmer, Carl. "What’s the Longest Humans Can Live? 115 Years, New Study Says." New York Times. N.p., 5 Oct. 2016. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.
My classmate, Lyric Abbott, overall did a very good job on reviewing the article, “What’s the Longest Humans Can Live? 115 Years, New Study Says.” One aspect of it that is very well done is explaining that many scientists have different theories to the latest people can live. By Lyric saying, “There is a lot of debate occurring between scientists when it comes to this topic and the theory that humans are living short lives is very controversial,” it explains that there is no definite answer to the question yet and evidence pointing to theories keeps on coming up. By doing this she does not confuse the reader by making them think that there is confirmed evidence. Another good aspect of her work is the summary. Her summary makes up 22 lines of the review which, in my opinion, is just about the perfect amount. The reason it is the perfect amount is because it’s enough to the point where the reader understand the article but not too much to where Lyric doesn’t have enough room for her own opinion. Another aspect I thought was well was the conclusion. Often conclusions are very rushed and feel like no time was put into them, however, this conclusion has a good amount of information on it and is well written. The reason for this is because she wrapped up a lot of her final thoughts better than most by saying things such as, “I also felt that the article ended a bit abruptly and did not have a proper explanation and conclusion.” By Lyric saying things such as this one, it proves that she did thorough reading because she would not have been able to do as much questioning if she didn’t.
Even though Lyric’s review was overall pretty good, there are some parts that could have been better. One part that could have been better was her second section of her review. Even though it should be a pretty large portion of the review talking about relevance, it’s not in this case and could have a lot more relevance in it. For example, Lyric says, “When Dr. Vijg and his students looked at data from 40 countries, they found the same overall trend.” The article proved that this trend in data occurs in other countries, not just the US, which has a big impact in not only America's but the entire world.” This is essentially a summary which could be much more detailed with relevance. Lyric could fix this by making the paragraph less of a summary and more of tying the article to relevant issues in the current world. The only other mistake I found in her article, which is a very small issue, was her MLA header. Lyric said on the last line the assignment, which is, “current events 5,” when she should have said the date the assignment is due, which is, “17 October, 2016.” Even though this is a very minor issue, it was the only other issue I could find in this article. The simple and easy fix to this is simply switching the assignment to the date the assignment is due.
Overall, Lyric’s review was very well made and very interesting to read. I learned a lot about the many theories that are being talked about surrounding maximum ages for humans. I chose this review because I have always been interested in the max age someone can live to and what affects human’s abilities to make it even farther than what it is now. Also, I have always been interested in the fact the some people can live up to over 30 years the average life expectancy and that some people have lived more years past the year one hundred than I have in my whole life. Knowing the maximum age will change my perspective because hearing it as just a number isn’t too surprising but when you read the chances and factors that affect a human from getting to the maximum age, it is surprising anyone makes it there.
Samantha Huss
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
D Block Odd
16 October 2015
Current Event Comment #5
"What’s the Longest Humans Can Live? 115 Years, New Study Says." New York Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2016. .
Lyric Abbott’s review of the article, “What’s the Longest Humans Can Live? 115 Years, New Study Says,” is very well written and was enjoyable to read. One thing that Lyric did particularly well was incorporate her diction to make the review more sophisticated and more enjoyable to read. Because of her word choice, the review sounded very professional and did not contain much repetition. Also, Lyric did a great job of backing most of her claims with direct evidence from the study. In her review she included many direct quotes which helped to gain the reader's trust after she made certain claims. Finally, Lyric’s review was very fact based. Along with backing up her claims with evidence from the article she was reviewing, she also included many direct facts as well. By giving the reader specific data, she gave her claims and her review a stronger voice.
Although Lyric’s review is very well done, there are a few things I would alter in order to improve it. First, the organization of Lyric’s review could be a little bit more thought out and clearer. Some parts of her review felt as if she had written them as she thought of them, and in order to fix this she could have saved certain information, while she was writing, for a section of the review which it was more suited for. Also, Lyric could have explained more about the claim that some people believe that humans’ lives are continuing to elongate. She left some of these claims unfinished and it would have been helpful if she had completed them or tied them off with more facts or evidence.
Lyrics review taught me a lot about the human lifespan. One thing that really surprised me was how much the average length of the human life has increased over the last century. It is shocking that the lifespan of a human has gone from 50 years to 79 years in only 100 years. Lyrics review was well written and was interesting to read. Despite having a few minor flaws to fix, it was overall very well done and made me want to learn more about the topic.
Alex New
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
Core Biology H
10/25/16
I really liked Lyric's review of the article, "What’s the Longest Humans Can Live? 115 Years, New Study Says", published in the New York Times by Carl Zimmer. There were some things that I really liked about how Lyric presented her review. The review sounded very professional because of the advanced vocabulary that Lyric used. Also, she includes many direct quotes from the article to back up her facts. For instance, she wrote, "Dr. Vijg theory is correct and humans can only live up to the age of 115 and no further." She then added a quote from Dr. Vjig himself to reinforce her statement. Finally, the reader could tell by the way Lyric criticized the article that she had done thorough reading and research.
Even though Lyric did many things correctly, there is still some room for improvement. For example, some of the sentences she wrote seemed to run on or were written as she was thinking about them. This could be improved with some editing. Lyric also could work on using her own opinion in the review. The first paragraph was mostly a summary, but she could have included her own thoughts as well.
Overall, I learned about the extent of the human life span. Something I found incredible is how the life expectancy has increased by almost 30 years in the past century. It makes me curious to see how much humans will advance in this century.
Matthew Rizzo
ReplyDeleteOctober 24th, 2016
Abbott, Lyric. "What." Bronxville HS Core Biology: ’s the Longest Humans Can Live? 115 Years, New Study Says. N.p., 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.
http://bhscorebio.blogspot.com/2016/10/lyric-abbott-october-15-2016-core.html
In this response written by my classmate Lyric Abbot, there are many positive things that she included in this piece. One very important thing that she did was pick a topic that was both interesting and relevant to people in this classroom. This article talks about the life expectancy of people around the age of sixteen and younger. To back up the claims made in this article, she includes many quotes from established scientists such as Dr. Vijg, an expert on aging at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine who argues that people began to age less and less starting in the 1980’s. Finally, a third very important thing included in this article are the many statistics supporting the claims made. One of these statistics concludes that the average lifespan of a person today in 79 which supports the theory that the max age that people will live in the future will only be 115.
Although I believe that this article is very well written, there are a few minor errors. One of these errors is that this article new includes the fact that in the future, there will be further medical advances that may make people live extremely long. Maybe naturally, people might live to 115, but with new medications, they could live longer. In addition, there are a few slight grammatical errors included in the quotes.
This article is very interesting in that it directly affects me and the other members of my classroom. This is because this article talks about the life expectancy of people being born today and the younger population which includes 16 year olds. Hopefully, we will live forever rather than max 115, but science says otherwise.