Age is more than just a number

Everyone wants to get older, but no one wants to be old. Because what does being old stand for? What do we think of when we think about getting older? Maybe you think of becoming grayer and fatter, forgetting things, or having difficulty walking. Or maybe you think of becoming wiser, strengthening bonds and finding peace. Whether these (pre)judgments are true or not, almost no one thinks about why we age in a certain way and where these changes come from. After all, why does our hair turn gray in the first place? Why are we more likely to get sick as we age? It’s even crazier when we compare our aging to animals. Some animals live to be 100 years old or seem immortal, while others die after just a few years. Where do these differences come from? And it’s not just the causes that are interesting to think about. After all, what if we could predict how old someone will get? Or indeed, what if we could counteract it? In this blog, we hope to tell you about what we now know about this inevitable process, and how we might be able to stop (parts of) it. And you’ll see, by the end of this blog you’ll be a little wiser again!  

Nadine Aafjes

Hi everyone, my name is Nadine and I am following a master about cancer, stem cells and developmental biology. However, I did a lab internship working with bovine embryos and there I found out that I am not sure about an academic career. Now I am broadening my horizon with six months of courses and an internship about science communication. In my free time I love spending time cooking, reading, hiking outdoor and having dinner with friends. With our blog and social media posts I hope we can inspire you with posts about aging.  

Beth Dodds

Hi! My name is Beth and I have a background in biochemistry and biomimicry. I love spending time outdoors and being inspired by nature: we can learn a lot from the natural world, from design and circularity to finding treatments to diseases and slowing aging. But why do some animals live longer than others, and how is that certain animals such as some jellyfish, can live forever? These are the questions I am curious to find the answers to, and maybe we can use these answers to begin to understand our own aging process and longevity. 

Eva Dekker

Hi, Eva here! I am a student of Biology of Disease, and the name of the master’s says it all: I want to know everything about how the human body works and what exactly goes wrong that makes us sick. Along with that, I also want to think about the ways in which we can prevent or fix those faults. A big question I want to answer is: why do we age and are there ways we can prevent this? Having already learned a lot about many issues, I hope to convey that information in this blog and make it understandable for everyone!   

Ruben van Swieten

Hi everyone! My name is Ruben and I studied Biomedical sciences as I have been fascinated by nature and the human body since a young age. After an internship in a microbiology lab I found out that I much rather did the research than doing labwork. After spending a gap year in the nature parks in Australia I decided to study science communication to communicate the fascinating information that science has to offer. With this blog we aim to give the reader new insights into the process of aging and if there is something to stop it.