Bu siness skills: b et ter me etings 1 — 21 business englisch bu sin es s e n g L is

17 
1/2021
Business Spotlight
TRENDS
A
Methuselah tree in Califor-
nia’s White Mountains is a 
real old-timer. According to 
recent research, this ancient 
bristlecone pine turned 4,851 years old in 
2020. This makes it one of the oldest indi-
vidual organisms on earth.
The Methuselah is not the only organ-
ism making recent headlines about lon-
gevity. Researchers announced last week 
that they had found beds of kelp off the 
Shetland Islands, and in Irish and French 
Atlantic waters, that had survived for 
16,000 years. And an international group 
of scientists announced that they had re-
vived microbes that had lain dormant in 
mud on the sea floor for 100 million years.
The endurance of life
The physiological limits of life on earth 
can be pushed to spectacular limits — al-
though each of these feats shows diffe-
rent aspects of the ageing process.
The Methuselah tree’s longevity shows 
the remarkable endurance of a single 
living thing. The kelp story reflects the 
extreme age of a population, but not of 
its individual plants, while the revival 
of ancient seabed microbes shows how 
suspended animation can be extraordi-
narily long-lasting. Nevertheless, there 
is a common theme to these research 
results, as an expert on ageing, Professor 
Tom Kirkwood of Newcastle University, 
points out: “These stories all speak to the 
endurance of life, and at a time when we 
have become fixated with ideas about our 
own mortality.” 
The diversity of lifespans on earth is 
certainly extraordinary. Mayflies live for 
little more than 24 hours in their adult 
form, while small, freshwater organisms 
called hydra — which can regenerate 
damaged tissue — are considered to be 
effectively immortal. The fruit fly, from 
egg through larva and pupa to adult, lives 
for only 14 days, while the world’s oldest 
known land animal, a 188-year-old giant 
tortoise named Jonathon, is still happi-
ly wandering around his home on the 
grounds of the governor’s residence on 
the island of Saint Helena.