The great medicine Green Pheobe spoke of was a secret drug named "Dragon Coiling and Serpent Leaping."
Some physicians aboard the Xianzhou believed that becoming mara-struck was the result of disordered cell growth.
A human was made up of a vast number of cells, which constantly renewed themselves throughout a person's life.
Based on this theory of cellular renewal, a claim circulated throughout the Sea of Stars: ninety-eight percent of the cells in a human body were replaced within six months.
Cells therefore had lifespans, and most lived for less than half a year.
The good news was that cells could divide to produce new cells. Old cells died, and new ones took their places.
The bad news was that there was a limit to how many times they could divide. Each division wore down their telomeres. After dozens of divisions, the telomeres were depleted, and the entire cycle came to an end.
Cells stopped dividing, and this corresponded to human aging.
As a person approached old age, the cells throughout their body began to die off.
When scientists discovered this mechanism, they initially struggled to understand it. Why had telomeres developed to limit human cell division?
Why would cells actively impose a cycle on themselves, locking themselves down?
If cells could divide endlessly, wouldn't humans be able to live forever?
Scientists tried to unravel the mystery of longevity and unlock that restraint.
But a new discovery made them understand why the lock existed-
Cancer.
A new kind of cell, called a cancer cell, had no such division limit and could divide endlessly.
One could say that cancer cells had already unlocked immortality.
However, cancer cells divided without order.
To put it another way, normal cells worked diligently, each holding to its assigned post.
Cancer cells did nothing but reproduce