Life is ephemeral. Especially if you belong to that order of insects called Ephemeroptera, the mayflies. An adult mayfly lives for minutes or hours.
Articles with Genetics
Jonathan, a giant tortoise hatched in c. 1832 • Photo by Kevstan (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo by eddie howell on Unsplash
But would we really want to live forever?
Why do we die? I’m not talking about death by accident, murder, war, or disease, but the inevitable senescence that comes to us all, the catastrophic decline into old age and death that no amount of care, wealth, or connivance can delay. A lucky mayfly might survive for as long as four weeks, a turtle can live for 150 years, and a human being for a century — but when your number comes, the time is up.
A fruit fly • Photo by Hannah Davis (CC BY-SA 4.0)
All hail the fruit fly
Like a Newton, a Darwin, or an Einstein, Drosophila, the fruit fly, begins life as a single cell. Within that cell are the genes that will lead, in the fullness of time, to a human of genius, or to an insect with…ah, shall we say, another sort of scientific fame.
Tobacco plant with firefly gene • National Science Foundation (Public Domain)
A tale of a firefly and a tobacco leaf
By now you may have heard the joke. Question: What do you get when you cross a firefly with a tobacco plant. Answer: A cigarette that lights itself.