- OUTLOOK
Super-centenarians offer clues as demographers and scientists lock horns over one of the world’s oldest research questions.
- By
- Michael Eisenstein0
- Michael Eisenstein
-
Michael Eisenstein a science writer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
-
In the late eighteenth century, while in hiding from his fellow French revolutionaries, the philosopher and mathematician Nicolas de Condorcet posed a question that continues to occupy scientists to this day. “No doubt man will not become immortal,” he wrote in Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind, “but cannot the span constantly increase between the moment he begins to live and the time when naturally, without illness or accident, he finds life a burden?”
Access options
Change institution
Buy or subscribe
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
£14.99 /30days
cancel any time
Learn more
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
£199.00 per year
only £3.90 per issue
Learn more
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Learn more
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Nature 601, S2-S4 (2022)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00070-1
This article is part of Nature Outlook: Ageing, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties. About this content.
References
Finch, C. E. & Pike, M. C. J. Gerontol. Sci. Biol. Sci. 51A, B183–B194 (1996).
Dong, X., Milholland, B. & Vijg, J. Nature 538, 257–259 (2016).
Barbi, E., Lagona, F., Marsili, M., Vaupel, J. W. & Wachter, K. W. Science 360, 1459–1461 (2018).
Gavrilova, N. S. & Gavrilov, L. A. J. Gerontol. A Biol. Sci. Med. Sci. 75, 1061–1067 (2020).
Medford, A. & Vaupel, J. W. PLoS ONE 14, e0212345 (2019).
Oeppen, J. & Vaupel, J. W. Science 296, 1029–1031 (2002).
Zuo, W., Jiang, S., Guo, Z., Feldman, M. W. & Tuljapurkar, S. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, 11209–11214 (2018).
Robine, J.-M. Ageing Populations: We Are Living Longer Lives, But Are We Healthier? (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2021).
López-Otín, C., Blasco, M. A., Partridge, L., Serrano, M. & Kroemer, G. Cell 153, 1194–1217 (2013).
Related Articles
-
Ageing
-
How the COVID-19 pandemic might age us
-
Robots rise to meet the challenge of caring for old people
-
Support for LGBTQ+ people in later life
-
Tackling the crisis of care for older people: lessons from India and Japan
-
The biological clean-ups that could combat age-related disease
-
Research round-up: Ageing
-
Turning back time with epigenetic clocks
-
Partner content: Recent research into nicotinamide mononucleotide and ageing
-
Partner content: Viewing challenges as springboards for innovation
Subjects
- Ageing
- Society
Latest on:
Jobs
-
DIRECTOR
Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), is seeking exceptional candidates for the position of Director
Bethesda, Maryland (US)
National Institutes of Health
-
Principal Investigator Positions at the Institute for Regenerative Biology and Medicine, CIMR
Regenerative Biology and Medicine, including but not limited to disease immunology, ageing, biochemistry of extracellular matrix...
Beijing, China
The Chinese Institutes for Medical Research (CIMR), Beijing
-
Principal Investigator Positions at the Institute for Molecular and Cellular Therapy, CIMR, Beijing
We're looking for outstanding scientists at all ranks interested in developing novel therapeutics in all disease areas.
Beijing, China
The Chinese Institutes for Medical Research (CIMR), Beijing
-
Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Regenerative Biology and Medicine (Lab of. Dr. Yuval Rinkevich)
Discovery of cellular and molecular mechanisms of tissue repair and regeneration.
Beijing, China
Institute for Regenerative Biology and Medicine, Chinese Institutes for Medical Research (CIMR)
-
Career Opportunities at the Yazhouwan National Laboratory, Hainan, China
YNL recruits leading scientists in agriculture: crop/animal genetics, biotech, photosynthesis, disease resistance, data analysis, and more.
Sanya, Hainan, China
Yazhouwan National Laboratory
Change institution
Buy or subscribe
Related Articles
-
Ageing
-
How the COVID-19 pandemic might age us
-
Robots rise to meet the challenge of caring for old people
-
Support for LGBTQ+ people in later life
-
Tackling the crisis of care for older people: lessons from India and Japan
-
The biological clean-ups that could combat age-related disease
-
Research round-up: Ageing
-
Turning back time with epigenetic clocks
-
Partner content: Recent research into nicotinamide mononucleotide and ageing
-
Partner content: Viewing challenges as springboards for innovation
Subjects
- Ageing
- Society
Sign up to Nature Briefing
An essential round-up of science news, opinion and analysis, delivered to your inbox every weekday.