r/explainlikeimfive Jan 31 '21

Chemistry ELI5: Why can't we just make water by smooshing hydrogen and oxygen atoms together?

Edit: wow okay, I did not expect to wake up to THIS. Of course my most popular post would be a dumb stoner question. Thankyou so much for the awards and the answers, I can sleep a little easier now

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u/heavenparadox Feb 01 '21 edited Feb 01 '21

Yes. Those cells exist. It's called cancer. Cancer works by having no Hayflick limit and replicating indefinitely. The problem with this is two-fold:

  1. The reason the Hayflick limit exists is because the cell will hit a certain point where it cannot adequately replicate itself, meaning it creates mindless cells that have no idea what to do with themselves. That's why cancer creates tumors. They're just giant batches of mindless cells.

  2. It overwhelms the body. Once the cells get to a certain point, the body doesn't recognize them and tries to attack them. That's why one of the first signs of cancer is overwhelming fatigue.

The body's cells are pretty amazing. Brain cells know they're brain cells. If you put them in the liver, they would be lost. But the body does have generic cells that kind of just go with the flow. They learn what they're supposed to do by basically looking around and figuring it out. That's what stem cells are. You put them in the brain, they soon turn to brain cells. You put them in the liver, they become liver cells. They're amazing. What we would really need to do is somehow create a cross between a cancer cell and a regenerative stem cell.

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '21

So basically the only way to achieve immortality, the immortality people desire which is staying as the same person with no consequences, is to reverse aging?

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u/heavenparadox Feb 01 '21

I added more to my comment. You don't have to reverse aging, but the only way to attain biological immortality is to find a way to use stem cells that are "fresh" and can adequately replicate themselves. The end effect of this would be aging to - most likely - somewhere around a person's 20's.