Highly Speculative Hypotheses: Introducing a New Heading of Our Journal

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Editorial boards of scientific journals always face difficult choices: should or should not they publish this or that hypothesis. It is a very complicated problem. Most of the Western journals do not accept hypotheses for publication; they prefer to recommend authors of such hypotheses to submit their manuscripts to special unpopular journals specializing in publications of hypotheses. Some journals publish hypotheses in special headings. This often means the existence of some limits to fantasy. If a hypothesis exceeds these limits it will not be published. The limits of fantasy vary from journal to journal. For example, the journal Medical Hypotheses regularly publishes extremely speculative but very interesting suggestions by J. Bowls, a biologist-evolutionist from Chicago. He always begins his papers with a sarcastic remark: “It was not supported by any grant”. Such papers would not have any chance to be accepted for publication in FEBS Letters.

Olovnikov's new hypothesis, which he introduces here, consists in suggestion that man and animals have some biochemical “device” for measurement of their lifespan. The author proposes that relatively short DNA (chronomere) plays the key role in this device. Olovnikov suggests that such a chronomere exists in a chromosome as an additional strand. During the life time the chronomere localized in central nervous system cells shortens due to effect of some hormones released into blood stream by a certain gland. Chronomere shortening attenuates living functions and this attenuation basically represents aging.

Alexey Olovnikov had already opened a new heading in our journal. Several years ago we asked him to organize the first special issue of this journal with mini-reviews. That issue was devoted to telomerase. Many distinguished scientists such as Nobel Prize Winner T. Chech and L. Hayflick accepted Olovnikov's invitation to submit a paper to that issue. The impact-factor of our journal immediately increased and the telomerase issue of Biochemistry (Moscow) still has the best citation index among other issues of this journal published during recent years. I hope that the “lucky hand” of Olovnikov will help us in this new heading as well.

V. P. Skulachev,
Editor in Chief of Biochemistry (Moscow)

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