The bad news is you have to live underground with no clothes on...

Mine's the one with the moleskin trousers, thanks!

If having to remain naked and live underground is the price we must pay to look fabulous, so be it!

Quote: live many times longer than other rodents, and remain attractive, fit and virile the whole time

These rats are unique in the sense that they are the only mammal to have a hive society. The "queen" does. The "workers", soldiers, etc do not. They also obey the queen unquestionably, defend it from any danger and behave the way ants and termites do with regards to their hormonal overlord. They are also kept totally sterile.

So frankly, this research has a possible different angle. The proteins that provide this long age may in fact be the proteins which also guarantee the soldiers and workers submissive behaviour and their guaranteed sterility.

For some reason when reading this "This Perfect Day" by Ira Levin comes to mind.

...welcome our hairless ageless subterranean overlords.

Mines the moleskin one.

"and remain attractive, fit and virile the whole time."

Dude, you got issues man.

Rufus FTW!

Eat more naked mole rat.

me too

just ignore the wrinkly and hairless bit pls.

I do not want to know you. Go and stand over there.

What is that, that freaky thing?

You know this is getting a little silly.

So I'm thinking of releasing a paper entitled:

"Incredibly long and interminably boringly titled papers and why we should work towards finding a way of describing the content of an otherwise tedious paper in a way that can not only be pronounced without taking a day off work to do so but also doesn't require you to draw breath a second time halfway through to avoid suffocation - in human beings."

Can't we just have "Naked Mole Rats and Human Longevitiy" ?!

-- Richard

Have the scientists had a look at Richard Madeley yet? He seems to have the anti-ageing thing cracked and (as far as I know) doesn't live naked underground.

...on gettin love juice into a url!

Paris 'cos well, just because.

In that we are extending the life of all the stupid people as well, is that a good thing?

Ah, but who says we are?

Rochelle Buffenstein

Are we sure she has no other career?

Paris, 'cos rochelle sounds like she'd be Paris' BFF

>"These wrinkly, hairless burrowing creatures from East Africa live many times longer than other rodents, and remain attractive, fit and virile the whole time."

Yiff in hell, furf- ... oh. Wait a minute. *Naked* mole rats. No fur.

Now I don't know *what* to call you!

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>" ...welcome our hairless ageless subterranean overlords."

Dude. What part of mole-rat don't you get? The "mole" part, I guess. That should be subterranean *UNDERLORDS*, for crying out loud!

"...miracle mole rat crumple-protein purge lotion..."

You're why I read el Reg, my friend.

'cuz I read el Reg from my mum's basement whilst nekkid...

Thumbs up icon because-- oh wait, that's not my thumb...

I think Richard Madeley uses the Dorian Gray method. He gets younger while Judy Finnegan gets older.

Coat please, before Sarah Bee comes after me.

> "I should think naked mole rats are quite attractive to other naked mole rats"

Well yes, but it was Lewis who said it, and he didn't suggest he'd been out *interviewing* any mole-rats, so it can't have been /their/ opinion.

Greatest comedy animal ever? What about the Tasmanian devil or the Road Runner? You can even get a lot of laughs out of a hippo, as long as it's dropping from a sufficiently great height.

Naked Mole Lunches!

Naked Mole farms will be the next big health food craze!

No, *you* are wrong. The reproductive suppresion is reversible - when a queen dies, one of the other females will take over and become reproductive, so even the workers have the *potential* to be fertile right up until they die. This is quite different from the haplodiploid mechanism of Hymenopterans, where the workers are genetically incapable of breeding.

NMRs really are one of the most fascinating creatures, second only to the babelfish in their usefulness in the "There is no God" argument.