Today’s big topic:Jonathan is 194. What’s the secret?
Jonathan (left) and David (right). Two Aldabra giant tortoises.
What’s happening?
On the island of St. Helena, nearly 2000 kilometers off the coast of South Africa, a true record-holder is out for a stroll.
With ash-gray, wrinkled skin and a slightly domed shell that stretches back to the decade when the electric telegraph was invented and all the way to today.
Jonathan is approaching 195 years old. He is a tortoise and, at the moment, the oldest living land animal on the planet.
On Wednesday Oct. 7th, a new study was published in the respected journal Science Advances. In it, a group of researchers examined the giant tortoise to better understand how he and others of his kind can live so long.
Among other things, they found that the animal is unusually good at repairing its own DNA. Now the question is whether that new knowledge can be applied to humans.
Why it matters!
Analyses found that Jonathan has gene variants also seen in “immortal” jellyfish, bowhead whales, and people from Okinawa, Japan. Longevity is the common thread.
But the most interesting finding, according to Justin Gerlach of the University of Cambridge, co-author of the study, involves DNA repair:
»The study shows that the ability to regulate your genes is just as important as having good genes to begin with«, he says. You can be born with excellent genes, but if the body can’t repair them, it won’t do you much good.
Now comes the million-dollar question: Is any of this transferable to humans?
The Danish researcher of aging, Morten Scheibye-Knudsen of the University of Copenhagen, is not convinced: »Whether this is something you can translate to humans is hard to see«.
He does however acknowledge the fascination effect of the stuyd: »For me, the key point is that the tortoise can cope with aging. That Jonathan still ages, but can adapt to the aging that happens«, he says.
Read the full story on the Edition page.
Talk of town: They were having trouble with teenagers not showing up on Mondays. Then they changed one simple thing.
Last year, Next introduced free breakfast on Mondays because the school was struggling with students showing up late or not showing up at all.
For a story about how free Monday breakfast has halved absenteeism in 10th grade at the vocational school Next in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, only one of the three students who said they wanted to speak to Politiken has shown up.
That’s 16-year-old Theodor Santana Vuong. He’s standing there slicing thick pieces of a Schulstad loaf laid out on a desk in the classroom. There’s jam, chocolate, cheese, and butter to put on top. The chocolate usually goes first.
Last year, the vocational school introduced free breakfast on Mondays because it was struggling with students showing up late or not showing up at all. The simple change has meant more students come in. Today, 17 out of 22 students are here. It’s a good Monday, they say. Last year, before breakfast was introduced, on some days only ten students would show up after the weekend.
»I can’t wake up on Mondays. It’s so hard to get up. Now I come to see my friends and eat breakfast with them. It makes the day better to know there’s breakfast when I get here on the bus«, Theodor Santana Vuong explains.
Monday is the day the school sees the most absences, says Nanna Toft, leader at the school. Often the weekend gets stretched into an extra day because students flip their sleep schedules on Friday and Saturday.
Read the full story on the Edition page.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.