Judging by the vast number of bioinformatic diagrams that have been created to explain Aging, metabolism, and disease progression over the last few decades, the effort must be monumentally important to Scientists. The expertise and time needed to compile and present a contemporary thorough diagram of how the human body works and ages is incredible. It is surmised that the Researchers who created these schematics had hoped to generate more discussion about basic biological Science and to accomplish something positive such as cure diseases or slow Aging. Yet all of these detailed complex schematics and graphics [http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/index.cfm?domain=biology] seem to live in isolation in some library or on some Web page with few ever seeing or learning from them. A tragedy.
Activists from the [International Longevity Alliance](/blog/353/), LongeCity [http://www.longecity.org/forum/page/index.html], and ([Science](/blog/378/) Against [Aging](/blog/210/)? [http://www.scienceagainstaging.com/ENG/index_ENG.html]) have set out to remedy this tragic state of affairs. Given the global reach of the Internet, the low cost of creating and maintaining a large database, and the plethora freely available visualization software, there is no reason a comprehensive schematic of Aging and disease cannot be created. There is no reason it should not be more interactive and engaging.
The previously created schematics suffer from overly scientific language, a non flexible editing process, and lack of interactivity. What we propose is an attractive interactive presentation that leverages human's natural visual-spatial capability, pattern recognition, and crowd-sourced wisdom. Through the process of manipulating (playing/toying with) the mechanisms of Aging and better visualizing connections between events (changes) in metabolism, damage, and Aging, new insights will be gained and the Science of Aging will advance at a quicker pace. Instead of brilliant Scientists laboring alone and creating schematics that few people care to understand, we will produce increased Collaboration.
One key part of this Project is to engage a more novice audience as well. When presented in less scientific language in a more interactive visual environment, there is a greater chance that more people will contribute to the goal of living healthier and longer. Different levels of the schematic will present a user with different levels of scientific terminology and different methods of contributing. Past efforts to explain Aging, metabolism, and disease failed to communicate why the average person should look at, much less try to understand the underlying Science, even to a minimal degree. The current effort will place a high priority on explaining how the processes involved in metabolism and Aging lead common dreaded diseases such as Cancer. Users will be able to manipulate some of these processes in order to see how they can change to progression of Aging, disease, pain, and disability. Users will be able to find out what they can do to help in the battle against Aging and disease, whether it is outreach and advocacy, or donating to ground-breaking Research Projects.
There is an evolving discussion about this Project [http://www.longecity.org/forum/topic/60779-aging-biomarkers-schema/] which is summarized as the Graph Visualization Project.
