The quest for, and impossibility of, immortality. Dr Vincent Lynch, University of Buffalo

Biology Seminar, Saul Lecture: Dr. Vincent Lynch, University of Buffalo

The quest for, and impossibility of, immortality.

A public lecture, sponsored by George B Saul II lecture fund and the Biology Department.

Why do we get sick, old, and die?

Theoretically there is no reason organisms cannot live forever. However, except for maybe one animal, every thing that has ever lived, and will live, will get old, sick, and die.  But if immortality is possible, why hasn’t it evolved?

Dr. Vincent Lynch is a first generation student who grew up in downstate NY, and was rather feral spending most of his free time outside exploring nature. After realizing his initial plan of joining the military was a bad mistake because he doesn’t take orders well and has epilepsy, he switched course and went to SUNY Albany where he earned a BS in biology and BA in anthropology. After graduating he earned his PhD from Yale University and has been taking orders from no one and studying whatever is interesting exercise (which is easy to do as an evolutionary biologist because everything evolves); lately that includes studies of the origins of pregnancy and how large, long-lived animals solved the paradox of their elevated cancer risk.