“The way evolution works makes it impossible for us to possess genes that are specifically designed to cause physiological decline with age or to control how long we live.” —from a Scientific American article by Jay Oshansky, Bruce Carnes, and Leonard Hayflick (2004)
Most biologists still think this way, even among people who study aging, even those working on anti-aging medicine. If you believe this as a matter of bedrock theory, then what do you say when a gene is discovered that cuts life short, but still manages to dominate the gene pool? You say that the gene has benefits that outweigh
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