X-Message-Number: 26058
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 18:41:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: 172'nd update on fly longevity experiments

     This is the 172'nd update of my fly longevity experiments. Average
 temperature was 21.4 C during this run. Estimated maximal longevity using
 the formula (363 - T*11.2) is 123 days.
     Activated charcoal had been found to be slightly beneficial in
 previous runs. This run tests to see if it was the carbon fines (or lamp
 black) that constitute the active ingrediant.
     According to one survey, cranberry has the highest oxygen radical
 absorbance capacity (ORAC) among fruits and vegetables, while cloves have
 the highest ORAC of all food items. Although I'm not a believer in the
 "free radical theory of aging" mythos, I thought it might be interesting
 to give these two items a try. I'd tried some fruit juices which included
 a little cranberry, but had never tried the cranberry fruit itself.
 Unfortunately I'd forgotten that I'd already tried cloves, with no effect
 back in run #2.
     To my great surprise, the current batch of clove powder turned out to
 be highly toxic. I have no idea why this turned out to be the case. I
 suspect some minor contamination from the high dose clove bottle to the
 low dose cranberry bottle occurred, due to using the same tamping
 instrument on the fly food, without cleaning it after using it in the
 clove bottle.
     As expected the high dose cranberry proved to be largely neutral in
 its effects on longevity. The slight advantage in maximum longevity is
 likely a statistical artifact, which was derived from a single "lucky"
 fly.
     The poor results with lamp black rule out the idea that it was the
 fines from activated charcoal that were the source of its longevity
 benefit.

 Run #172                    Percent Survival on Day
 supplement          12 26 33 45 55 64 71 78 83 87 91 95 101
 ___________________________________________________________
 control one         95 58 53 37 26 16  5  5  5  5  0  -   -
 control two         88 56 44 36 36 16  8  0  -  -  -  -   -
 cloves 1/8 tsp      52  0  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -   -
   "    1/4 tsp      29  0  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -   -
 cranberrys 5%       76 33 29 14  0  -  -  -  -  -  -  -   -
   "       20%       84 55 45 26 10 13 10  3  3  3  3  3   0
 lamp black 1/8 tsp  83 39 39 11 11  0  -  -  -  -  -  -   -
   "        1/4 tsp  79 42 33 25  4  4  4  0  -  -  -  -   -
   "        1/2 tsp  86 59 36 14  5  5  5  0  -  -  -  -   -
   "          1 tsp  90 53 53 21 21  5  5  0  -  -  -  -   -

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