How Long Can We Live?
Try Squarespace for free: http://www.squarespace.com/MINUTEEARTH The human lifespan might be limited, in part, because natural selection just stops ...
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This video was sponsored by Squarespace. Hi, this is Emily from MinuteEarth. Not to sound super morbid, but with each passing second of life, the cells in our bodies accrue a little more damage, which is at least partly why, as people get older, their odds of dying increase: today, a 40 year-old has a .3% chance of dying in the next year, while a 60-year old has a 1% chance of dying in the next year, an 80 year old has a 5 percent chance, and a 100-year-old has a 50% chance. But around that age, there's some evidence that the odds of dying level off. So, what would make the mortality curve flatten out like that? Well, ne theory is that it has to do with natural selection and bad jeans – the other kind. Take a hypothetical gene mutation that proves fatal during childhood. Because it kills i...
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This video was sponsored by Squarespace. Hi, this is Emily from MinuteEarth. Not to sound super morbid, but with each passing second of life, the cells in our bodies accrue a little more damage, which is at least partly why, as people get older, their odds of dying increase: today, a 40 year-old has a .3% chance of dying in the next year, while a 60-year old has a 1% chance of dying in the next year, an 80 year old has a 5 percent chance, and a 100-year-old has a 50% chance. But around that age, there's some evidence that the odds of dying level off. So, what would make the mortality curve flatten out like that? Well, ne theory is that it has to do with natural selection and bad jeans – the other kind. Take a hypothetical gene mutation that proves fatal during childhood. Because it kills i...
