Table of Contents
Preface, 1
Acknowledgments, 3
Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1 Why is it necessary to study life span? 5
1.2 Short history of the subject, 10
1.3 The present state of the discipline, 15
Chapter 2. Individual Differences in Lifetime
2.1 Where should the study of life span begin? 21
2.2 Individual differences - the key issue in the biology of life span,
22
2.3 The nature of variability in lifetimes, 31
2.4 In search of the life span distribution law, 39
2.5 The Gompertz-Makeham law, 50
2.6 Unresolved issues and problems, 61
Chapter 3. The Human Life Span, 64
3.1 Specific questions connected with research into the human life
span, 64
3.2 Regularities of human mortality, 67
3.3 The biological characteristics of the human life span, 72
3.4 The epidemiological approach to studying the biology of the human
life span, 86
3.5 Prospects for human life span extension, 106
Chapter 4. Species-specific Life Span, 117
4.1 Review of ideas about species-specific life span, 117
4.2 Is there a species-specific life span limit? 125
4.3 The concept of species-specific life span invariants, 132
4.4 The Strehler-Mildvan correlation, 141
4.5 The compensation effect of mortality, 148
Chapter 5, The Search for the Mechanisms Which Determine Life Span, 157
5.1 A self-destructive program or wear and tear? 157
5.2 Analysis of inter-species differences in the duration of life,
165
5.3 Analysis of intra-species differences in the duration of life,
175
5.4. Analysis of sex differences in lifetimes, 182
5.5 Experiments in life extension, 205
5.6 The limit of cell division: the key to the mechanism which
determines
life span? 210
5.7 Reliability theory: the methodological foundation for research
into the mechanisms which determine life span, 225
Chapter 6. Mathematical Models of Life Span, 232
6.1 Introduction, 232
6.2 The need for a critical attitude to mathematical models of life
span, 235
6.3 Limiting distributions of the life spans of biological systems,
240
6.4 The model of the avalanche-like destruction of an organism in
natural
aging, 246
6.5 The model of a multiply redundant system saturated with defects,
252
6.6 The model of a redundant system with an arbitrary number of
defects,
258
6.7 The heterogenous population model, 264
6.8 The model of accumulation of defects with constant intensity of
the flow of damage, 272
6.9 The problem of the diversity of causes of death and their
interaction,
276
6.10 Concluding remarks, 285
Conclusion, 290
Appendix 1
List of published animal life tables, 293
Appendix 2
Table A: Features which show a positive correlation with the life span
of organisms, 310
Table B: Features which show a negative correlation with the life span
of organisms, 317
Table C: Features which show a weak correlation with the life span
of organisms, 322
References, 326
Subject Index, 367