Part I: Telomeres and Replicative Senescence How Replicative Senescence was Discovered

How Replicative Senescence was Discovered As a microbiology grad student in the early 1950s, Leonard Hayflick learned about the longest-running experiment in biological history. Alexis Carrel had kept a cell culture alive, growing and replicating for 34 years, from 1912 to 1946. This proved that cells themselves were immortal and that aging must take place at a higher level within the organism as a whole.