Andrew Steele

So it's not generally the sort of cancers and the heart disease and that sort of stuff that you associate with older age. It's the external causes of death. And then obviously as you get older, the risk of diseases increases and starts to swamp those external causes.

Well, this is the fascinating thing because obviously that happens to cars, it happens to machines, it happens to our pets, it happens to our farm animals. You know, you can easily imagine that aging is a universal process. But actually this just isn't the case because we've got a huge advantage as biological organisms. We can repair ourselves.

Well, this is the fascinating thing because obviously that happens to cars, it happens to machines, it happens to our pets, it happens to our farm animals. You know, you can easily imagine that aging is a universal process. But actually this just isn't the case because we've got a huge advantage as biological organisms. We can repair ourselves.

Well, this is the fascinating thing because obviously that happens to cars, it happens to machines, it happens to our pets, it happens to our farm animals. You know, you can easily imagine that aging is a universal process. But actually this just isn't the case because we've got a huge advantage as biological organisms. We can repair ourselves.

If we didn't have these incredibly intricate mechanisms of repair that are buzzing away inside of our cells every single hour of every single day, all the time, you know, correcting mistakes, disposing of rubbish, that kind of thing, we would die an awful lot sooner than we actually do.

If we didn't have these incredibly intricate mechanisms of repair that are buzzing away inside of our cells every single hour of every single day, all the time, you know, correcting mistakes, disposing of rubbish, that kind of thing, we would die an awful lot sooner than we actually do.

If we didn't have these incredibly intricate mechanisms of repair that are buzzing away inside of our cells every single hour of every single day, all the time, you know, correcting mistakes, disposing of rubbish, that kind of thing, we would die an awful lot sooner than we actually do.

And in fact, there are some animals that have got so good at repairing themselves that their risk of death doesn't change with time. That's a phenomenon that in biology we call negligible senescence. So negligible just meaning, you know, not much, and senescence is just the biological term for growing old.

And in fact, there are some animals that have got so good at repairing themselves that their risk of death doesn't change with time. That's a phenomenon that in biology we call negligible senescence. So negligible just meaning, you know, not much, and senescence is just the biological term for growing old.

And in fact, there are some animals that have got so good at repairing themselves that their risk of death doesn't change with time. That's a phenomenon that in biology we call negligible senescence. So negligible just meaning, you know, not much, and senescence is just the biological term for growing old.

So the reason there's a tortoise on the cover of my book is because that is a negligibly senescent animal. It's an animal whose risk of death stays constant when it becomes an adult. And that means that they can live an incredibly long time. But most importantly, it's not just their risk of death that stays constant. They also don't have any increase in frailty as they get older.

So the reason there's a tortoise on the cover of my book is because that is a negligibly senescent animal. It's an animal whose risk of death stays constant when it becomes an adult. And that means that they can live an incredibly long time. But most importantly, it's not just their risk of death that stays constant. They also don't have any increase in frailty as they get older.

So the reason there's a tortoise on the cover of my book is because that is a negligibly senescent animal. It's an animal whose risk of death stays constant when it becomes an adult. And that means that they can live an incredibly long time. But most importantly, it's not just their risk of death that stays constant. They also don't have any increase in frailty as they get older.

They stay reproductively active no matter how old they are. That means that they grow older, but without growing old in the way that we humans do. And so I hope that by understanding the biology of aging, we can try and transfer some of that wisdom and some of those sort of biological techniques to keep us sprightly into our old age too.

They stay reproductively active no matter how old they are. That means that they grow older, but without growing old in the way that we humans do. And so I hope that by understanding the biology of aging, we can try and transfer some of that wisdom and some of those sort of biological techniques to keep us sprightly into our old age too.

They stay reproductively active no matter how old they are. That means that they grow older, but without growing old in the way that we humans do. And so I hope that by understanding the biology of aging, we can try and transfer some of that wisdom and some of those sort of biological techniques to keep us sprightly into our old age too.

The goal is definitely health, and I think that you've got to think about what actually kills you. Although decades ago it was permissible for doctors to write death by old age on an older person's death certificate, now we understand that you can't just die of old age. You die of heart disease, you die of cancer, you die of dementia.

The goal is definitely health, and I think that you've got to think about what actually kills you. Although decades ago it was permissible for doctors to write death by old age on an older person's death certificate, now we understand that you can't just die of old age. You die of heart disease, you die of cancer, you die of dementia.

The goal is definitely health, and I think that you've got to think about what actually kills you. Although decades ago it was permissible for doctors to write death by old age on an older person's death certificate, now we understand that you can't just die of old age. You die of heart disease, you die of cancer, you die of dementia.

One of these diseases that are much more likely as you get older, and these diseases too get exponentially more likely as you increase in age, that's something that eventually becomes severe enough to take your life. And so, you know, it's very much the pain, the suffering, all of these things together that we want to try and get rid of.