Workshop: Connecting the Biological and Physical Principles of Mammalian Aging; Arlington, VA; May 15-16, 2014

功能丧失在自然界中无处不在，从生物体的衰老到人类工程系统的衰退。随着时间的推移，植物和动物失去功能并死亡，山脉被侵蚀，建筑物和设备在结构上失效和腐烂。在许多非生命系统中，已经阐明了控制这种功能丧失的一般原则，这些原则可能适用于衰老。然而，在生物系统中，已经提出了大量的场景和无数的机制来解释生物体结构和功能的退化。从系统层面的观点来看待哺乳动物的衰老是寻找控制系统的一般原则和“杠杆”的关键组成部分，包括改变导致衰老的过程的途径。大量的实验数据已经积累起来，随着过去20年中更好的实验技术的发展，正在收集可用于设计进一步实验和发展老化定量理论的定量数据。物理学的经验是，当一个人将子系统动力学的细节整合到一个更全面的系统层面的方法中，并寻找管理物理过程的基本原则时，我们就能更深入地了解自然界的可证伪理论理解。这种方法可以为理解生物衰老提供新的重要见解。研讨会：“连接哺乳动物衰老的生物学和物理原理”将汇集大约25名科学家。其中大约一半是生物学家，一半是物理学家。会议将重点讨论与哺乳动物衰老有关的模型系统。研讨会将讨论目前对老龄化的理解，相关数据和未来的发展方向。讨论感兴趣的话题（但不仅限于这些）包括百岁老人衰老、过早衰老、癌症和衰老等。其他可能感兴趣的问题是整个物种的衰老。似乎人类的配子已经数百万年没有老化了，地球上的生命作为一个整体并没有老化，也许信息复制的原则，信息个体载体的死亡，以及进化过程一起对抗生命的老化。年轻的科学家谁是开放的提出和讨论新的，可能是投机性的，将导致对老龄化的新观点的想法将参加研讨会。与会者的混合构成将激发新的研究思路。研讨会的谈话和讨论将被记录下来，并向公众提供。

Loss of functionality is ubiquitous across Nature, from aging in organisms to the decay of human engineered systems. With time, plants and animals lose functionality and die, mountains erode, buildings and devices structurally fail and decay. In many nonliving systems general principles have been articulated that govern this loss of functionality and these may be applicable to aging. In biological systems, however, a multitude of scenarios and myriads of mechanisms have been proposed to explain the deterioration of the architecture and function of organisms. Looking at mammalian aging from a systems level viewpoint is a critical component in the search for general principles and "levers" that control the system, including the paths to alter the processes leading to aging. A vast amount of experimental data has been accumulated and, with the development of better experimental techniques during the past 20 years, quantitative data is being collected that can be used to design further experiments and develop quantitative theories of aging. The experience in physics is that when one integrates the details of sub-system dynamics into a more holistic systems level approach and search for underlying principles that govern physical processes we gain deeper insight into developing falsifiable theoretical understandings of Nature. This methodology could provide new and important insights into understanding biological aging. The Workshop: "Connecting the Biology and Physical Principles of Mammalian Aging" will bring together approximately 25 scientists. Approximately half of them will be biologists and half physicists. The meeting will focus on model systems relevant to mammalian aging. The workshop will have discussion of the current understanding of aging, the relevant data, and future directions. Topics of interest to the discussion, but not limited only to these, are centenarian aging, premature aging, cancer and aging, etc. Other questions that could be of interest are the aging of species as a whole. It seems that the human gametes have not aged for millions of years, that Life as a whole on Earth has not aged, and that perhaps the principles of information copying, death of the individual carriers of information, and evolutionary processes together defy the aging of Life. Young scientists who are open to presenting and discussing new, possibly speculative, ideas that will lead to a new perspective on aging will participate at the workshop. The mixed composition of the participants will stimulate new research ideas. The talks and discussions at the workshop will be recorded and made available to the public.