The science of longevity is advancing by leaps and bounds. In laboratories around the world, aging specialists are studying dozens of avenues to help us live longer and longer in good health. Biotechnology companies are multiplying to transform these discoveries into treatments while the first clinical trials are starting. It is this ongoing revolution that L’Express has chosen to tell you about at the turn of this new year. Because if these scientists succeed, humanity will be deeply shaken.
But make no mistake: changes in longevity take place over… a long time. Demographers know well that each gain in life expectancy is the result of the addition of hundreds of advances, accumulated over the course of our lives. And we are not only talking about scientific advances – education or material conditions also play a role.
This is also partly why life expectancy is stagnating today: because progress does not benefit everyone in the same way. Only the wealthiest, the best educated, those who have the means to eat properly, take care of their health and play sports live longer on average. For others, lifespan is stagnating, when it is not declining for the most deprived, particularly in the United States. A reality to which the inventions of scientists will not change anything. Longevity is also a political issue.