No matter what our beliefs, there are many euphemisms for death.
We may not mention the exact word, but we talk about crossing
over, flying away, kicking the bucket, buying the farm, cashing
in our chips, even going to Davy Jone's locker. Maybe those more
indirect terms help us deal with this life's final reality,
death. No matter how advanced humans become, there will always
be physical death. The old saying Bob Dylan helped popularize is
basically true, "He who is not busy being born, is busy dying."
The telomeres, or proteins on the ends of our chromosomes, allow
for complete DNA duplication. If the telomeres are damaged or
broken off, the duplication is imperfect, hence aging. Also we
seem to have a built-in expiration date. Since genetic
duplication only takes place a certain number of times in a
living thing, replication does come to an end. But it is thought
that while genetics loads the gun, it is usually behavior that
pulls the trigger. The most common causes of death in the U.S.
can be triggered by