Bats live 40 years despite burning energy fast — here's how they avoid cancer

Myotis brandtii lives 41 years. For a mammal its size, that lifespan is impossible — especially given its metabolic rate should flood cells with oxidative damage.

Yet bats don't get cancer at high rates. They solved the problem differently than elephants (extra p53 copies) or bowhead whales (enhanced DNA repair). Bats run active telomerase for unlimited cell division, but trigger p53-driven apoptosis aggressively when things go wrong.

Two oncogenic hits transform bat cells in a dish. In the wild, those hits almost never become tumors.