Hydra
present an interesting deviation from typical life histories: they have an
extensive capacity to regenerate and self-renew and seem to defy the aging
process. Hydra have
the ability to
decouple the aging process from their life history and therefore provide us
with a unique opportunity to gain insight into the aging process not only for
basal hydrozoans but also for other species across the tree of life. We argue
that under steady feeding and asexual reproduction Hydra species are
able to
escape aging as a result of high levels of cell proliferation and regenerative
ability. We further highlight cellular processes for stem cell maintenance,
such as the telomere dynamic, which prevent the accumulation of damage and
protect against diseases and pathogens that mediate this condition. In
addition, we discuss the causes of aging in other Hydra species.
© 2014, S. Karger AG, Basel.
Accessed on https://www.karger.com/article/FullText/360397
(2020-08-15).
From my article
C. Cordeiro
(2018). The
Self-Sustainable World of Shahzia Sikander, Kismif,
2018.
Shahzia
Sikander
presents herself as an artist of the transnational movement, of the movement of
artists who combine cultures with different origins, in a hybrid process,
defended by Homi Bhabha as a
process that originates the third space, a
space where cultures combine new structures of authority, new
political initiatives, which are inadequately understood through the knowledge
received (Rutherford,
1990, p. 211). Faithful to her origins, Shahzia Sikander challenges the programmatic construction
of patriarchal teaching to assert herself as a self-sustainable woman who gives
voice to female knowledge and empowerment.
In this article we study the different representations of a female form that has no head and no feet. The feet are connected by cords (umbilicals) that join the two legs. This female figure appears in 1993-1994, in her first works and continues to accompany the artist until, at least, 2017, in a mosaic panel for the Princeton Museum, Princeton University, U.S.A.. Our reading is that an allusion to the self - sustainability of the feminine is proposed by artist S. Sikander.This work HyDra combines the idea of regeneration of a living being with the capacity for self-sustainability of the feminine proposed by artists. Art and science together evoke the capacity for regeneration.
