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Comment by bsder | Hacker News Reader

I thought they used isotope analysis from nuclear testing fallout to prove that the neurons in the brain are between 15-20 years old on average? How do they reconcile this?

http://www.physicscentral.com/explore/action/nuclear-neurons...

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A likely possibility: the molecules get replaced, but it's still the same cell.

Theseus Ship of cell replacement?

See The Delphic Boat [0] for a discussion of this in detail.

[0]: http://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?arti...

Wow, thanks for the link. Kind of humbling when you think you've hit on a clever reference and someone's written a book about it =)

DNA doesn't get replaced that I know of, and that's what they focused on.

The only way to get "new" DNA is for a cell to assemble a new strand during division.

DNA repair mechanisms can synthesise new segments in response to damage.

There was also a paper published last month claiming DNA synthesis following learning, but I'm sceptical:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29427086

Interesting paper. Do you work in the area? I'm working on proving that memories are in fact stored in genetic material, as was believed back in the 60s.

Drop me an email (gauravvman at gmail) if you're interested in this kind of stuff! Would like to know how you came across this paper.

Afaik nature has good stuff, but it's not like a 'research journal' it's more popular stuff. A quote from the article: "There are only a handful of studies out there that have already attempted to look at this, and they came to wildly different conclusions." So, although I didn't look into this more deeply, it seems to me there is wide room to not take this popular article as 'full confirmation'.

Nature is basically the most prestigious scientific journal, along side Science. Getting a pub in either of those journals is considered a huge win.

Nature is ... kinda good:

http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php

Nature is a research journal. In fact it is one of the premier research journals. A publication in Nature can make a career.

Nature is not a specialist journal however. Most fields publish in it.

Well I guess the 'afaik' in my answer was wrong in this case, it was based on recollection of the last time I held a nature in my hand, and a comparison with a sort of definition as listed here: https://www.library.georgetown.edu/tutorials/scholarly-vs-po....

Sorry to unjustly disparage nature, however, it does not discount the quote I lifted from the post, which is still a valid point.

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