It is obvious that living things get old and die; wear and tear affects everything in the end, no matter how carefully it is nurtured, so it stands to reason that one day everyone of us must accept his or her time is up. Yet modern researchers in longevity push back against such fatalism; unlike a car or a new pair of shoes, living things repair themselves as they go. Cuts heal, bones remineralise, old cells are cleared away and new ones sprout. Even your brain, whose cells were once thought to be fixed early in life, is known to make new neurons as it needs them. So the real question is why such processes falter. After all, as long as they keep working, then so do you.

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