A. Dr. DePonce’s hypothesis predicts that drinking prune juice leads to a longer lifespan.
B. The experimental group is group 2 consisting of the prune juice while the control group is group 1 consisting of the mice drinking water.
C. Dr. DePonce’s hypothesis can be rejected because the average lifespan for both groups was 3 years. This means that drinking prune juice had no effect on the mice’s lifespan.
Question 2
A. Aging can be defined as growing and maturing, from the day you are born to the day you die your body undergoes the process of aging. According to the online biology dictionary, aging is the gradual change in the structure of humans and animals that occurs over time. Ultimately, aging is a set of processes the body undergoes…show more content… Overtime the organ systems change during the process of aging, once the body reaches a certain point in adulthood the body starts to decline. The nervous system starts to slow down. According to the NIH your brain and spinal cord loose nerve cells causing the body to pass messages more slowly than in the past. The slowing of thought, memory, senses, and thinking are all effects caused by the aging of the nervous system. The digestive system is not relatively affected by aging, however there are many changes that occur over time. Like the nervous system, cells are unable to grow as fast as before and are more susceptible to damage. According to the American Academy of Health and Fitness as we age the gastrointestinal tract becomes less smooth forcing food to move more slowly as the digestive contractions become weaker. As aging occurs muscles generally become weaker. The Academy of Health and Fitness states that the major functions of the muscular system includes heat production, locomotion, and support. As we age muscle fibers become smaller and less elastic causing reduced muscular strength and…show more content… Aging is unavoidable and it makes us question why we don’t live forever. The NIH proposes a hypothesis called the Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging (MFRTA). It states that “mitochondrial free radicals, produced as by-products during normal metabolism, cause oxidative damage.” Free radicals contain oxygen and are highly reactive with other molecules because they contain unpaired electrons. These free radicals then react with other cell components of the body such as DNA and proteins in attempts to stabilize. While attempting to stabilize, free radicals steal electrons from these cell components destabilizing them, causing oxidative damage. Over time this oxidative damage builds up and is believed to cause the aging process. Oxidative damage or oxidative stress causes an imbalance in the body affecting the production of free radicals and the ability to produce antioxidants to neutralize their harmful effects. Sufficient damage leads to cell death, and the accumulation of cell death over the years causes the body to undergo the aging