Scientists Retract Controversial Longevity Study, Blaming Equipment, But Argue They Were Still Right

By Rebecca Boyle Posted 07.25.2011 at 5:40 pm 9 Comments

Longevity A 100th birthday celebration in Brazil. Santa Rosa OldSkool via Flickr

Remember last year’s death-predicting longevity-gene study, estimating who is likely to live to 100 and who will not be so lucky? Well, the authors of the study have retracted their paper. But there’s a catch: They claim they were still right.

A bit of background: Last February, scientists at Boston University said they could predict with 77 percent accuracy whether someone was genetically predisposed to living a long life. The authors examined the genomes of 800 centenarians and determined there was a genetic signature of about 150 variations that, when present, could be used to predict longevity.

But soon after the study was published, other scientists cried foul, pointing to a piece of lab equipment the scientists used that has been known to provide false positives. The quirk in the lab equipment happened to be related to the two most important genetic variants involved in the study. Many scientists said the study was flawed based on this and other variables.

An independent laboratory has since checked the results, which led to this week's retraction, New Scientist reports.

After a few months of debate last year, the journal Science published a note of concern, acknowledging the ongoing controversy and noting that the authors were updating their findings. Other scientists were upset because it was not even authored by geneticists — lead author Thomas Perls is a geriatrician, and Paola Sebastiani is a biostatistician.

Now more than a year after the initial study, they’ve retracted it. But as they did last year, the researchers are standing by their work, the New York Times reports.

Disregarding data from the flawed chip, “The main scientific findings remain supported by the available data,” the authors wrote.

Science papers are corrected and updated all the time; even retractions are not all that unusual. This case is unique because the authors say the work is still accurate — and because the study itself was so controversial and potentially groundbreaking.

Perls and Sebastiani told the Times they retracted the entire paper rather than publishing a correction, and intend to try to republish it in another journal.

[via New Scientist]

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9 Comments

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BubbaGump

07/25/11 at 5:51 pm

Always respect your elders and the old, love them too, bunches!

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kormiko

07/25/11 at 7:26 pm

It depends on what you mean by "elders." There are a lot of older people that I do not respect, ones that just don't deserve it. Rupert Murdoch comes to mind. Respect the kind, generous, and loving no matter what the age.

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BubbaGump

07/25/11 at 8:08 pm

@kormiko, what goes around, comes around. Take care.

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rettaH_daM

07/26/11 at 12:28 pm

Well, I wasn't worried about old age because I ordered an android replacement body. But, my so-called friend Larry hacked my order and I received a sheep body instead. When I confronted him, he said he'd always dreamed of owning an electric sheep.

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B.V.

07/26/11 at 12:39 pm

*pointless but folksy generalization goes here*

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BubbaGump

07/26/11 at 1:18 pm

@rettaH_daM, as you dawn your electric sheep body, please do not back into your friend Larry. I mean, what was really is Larry's motive, hmm?

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laurenra7

07/27/11 at 1:33 am

Unfortunately (or fortunately) epigenetics is turning what we thought we knew about the genome on its head. Even though you may have a marker for a known genetic problem, your lifestyle and dietary habits can drastically alter the chance you will actually suffer any debilitating effects or pass on any predisposition to your progeny. DNA ain't the end of the story, folks. Your choices matter.

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AnaEzine

08/02/11 at 3:32 am

wow thx for that article great info, i keep updated coz i know secret 2 longevity and i always check 2 see if anybody else discovered it yet. Nope. thx for d update! Seriously if you want it 4 urself it's easy, free, instant, permanent, and the side affects of age-reverse: perfect health so why not? Ben Arnold cares about you & not your money, that's why he started this charity that rejects donations. To spread the word: the truth is discovered, successfully accomplished & you can start immediately for free with instant permanent results! keep this fact to yourself or share it, it's free, it's for everyone! -Ben :0)

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Dov Henis

10/25/11 at 4:57 am

Aging Is Also An E/m Matter,
Like each and all things in the universe.

A.
There is neither alchemy nor mystery in aging. Aging, like everything else in the universe, is an E/m, energy/mass, matter.

The universe is a two-poles affair. It evolves cyclically between two poles: an all-mass Big-Bang pole and a nearly-all-energy pole. Presently all the singularity mass is reconverting to energy, to energy that drives apart the galaxies clusters. In the energy-mass dualism mass thus diminishes as energy increases and the speed of separating clusters is, in accordance with Newton, accelerating.

Since thus every mass format, the totality of its components, are destined to reconvert to energy, the format must continuously take in energy or mass to postpone its own constitutional reconversion events. The in-takers of energy range from the biggest black hole to the smallest particle, including living organisms. This is what “natural selection” is all about. Natural selection is about ALL the E/m reconversions in the universe.

B.
See “ Aging Seen Without The Emperor’s New Clothes”
March 9, 2009
ouroboros.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/the-link-between-protein-synthesis-and-mitochondrial-degradation-and-towards-a-unified-mechanism-of-aging/#comment-4750

C.
Slowing aging is postponing of mass reconversion(s) event(s) of organisms, including the organisms genes/genomes, and/or of the other system’s components.

About time that “scientists” refresh conceptions and comprehensions and attitudes and research plans and anti-subversion peer-reviewing. Let their science evolve…

Dov Henis
(comments from 22nd century)
universe-life.com/

tags: aging, longevity, naturalselection

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