What is it about?
We show that the upper limit of human lifespan differs across human populations, and is rapidly increasing. This paper is also a refutation of the claim that human lifespan is generally limited to below 110 years: we show this claim is based on very poor attempts to conduct log-linear regression, and is deeply flawed.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
This paper is an important response to claims that human lifespan is reaching an unbreakable limit. More importantly, it provides an empirical basis for studying the environmental factors that determine the upper limit of human lifespan (as opposed to the mean or the observed maximum).
Perspectives
This paper is part of a broader exploration of the human mortality profile and the human aging rate, of which the upper limit of life is a minor part. I would point would-be readers to previous work on lifespan evolution and ageing (below), and highly suggest reading work by W.D. Hamilton (J theor biol 1966) and the excellent body of work on the grandmothering hypothesis by, among others, Ruth Mace, Mirrka Lahdenpera, Rebecca Sear and Virpi Lummaa. http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/04/05/124792 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0117019
Saul J Newman
CSIRO
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The dynamic upper limit of human lifespan, F1000Research, April 2017, Faculty of 1000, Ltd.,
DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.11438.1.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
