In a post
published in this blog in December 2015, Julio A. Gonzalo and I analyzed
the data on the world population provided in 2012 by the UN, along with their future
forecasts until the year 2100. A few months ago, the UN has updated those data
and forecasts with the figures
available in 2019. As seven years have elapsed, it is possible to compare the
forecasts made in 2012 with the real situation just now.
Showing posts with label demographic data. Show all posts
Showing posts with label demographic data. Show all posts
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Aging and longevity
 |
| Life span of several species. Data from Science News, 7-13-2016 |
It is often
said that aging has been favored by natural selection to facilitate the
replacement of one generation by the next. According to Alex Kowald (University
of Newcastle), this statement is nonsense. It is evident that natural selection would favor
individuals aging less and able to reproduce longer. Peter Medawar, Nobel Prize
in Physiology and Medicine (1960), said in 1951: Wild living beings do not live long enough for
natural selection to act on genes that affect aging. Death overtakes them long
before they are near their limit of longevity.
Each species
of living beings seems to have a maximum longevity. In humans, according to
appearances, this limit does not seem to go far above 110 years. The longest proven human
longevity corresponds to Jeanne Louise Calment (a French woman), who died at
age 122.5.
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