Table of Contents

Part 1 Introduction: why is it necessary to study life span?; short history of the subject; the present state of the discipline. Part 2 Individual differences in lifetime: where should the study of life span begin?; individual differences - the key issue in the biology of life span; the nature of variability in lifetimes; in search of the life span distribution law; the Gompertz-Makeham law; unresolved issues and problems. Part 3 The human life span: specific questions connected with research into the human life span: specific questions connected with research into the human life span; regularities of human mortality; the biological characteristics of the human life span; the epidemiological approach to studying the biology of the human life span; prospects for human life span extension. Part 4 Species-specific life span: review of ideas about species-specific life span; is there a species-specific life span limit?; the concept of species-specific life span invariants; the Strehler-Mildvan correlation; the compensation effect of mortality. Part 5 The search for the mechanisms which determine life span: a self-destruction program or wear and tear? analysis of inter-species differences in the duration of life; analysis of intra-species differences in the duration of life; analysis of sex differences in lifetimes; experiments in life extension; the limit of cell division - the key to the mechanism which determines life span?; reliability theory - the methodological foundation for research into the mechanisms which determine life span. Part 6 Mathematical models of life span: introduction; the need for a critical attitude to mathematical models of life span; limiting distributions of the life spans of biological systems; the model of the avalanche-like destruction of an organism in natural aging; the model of a multiply redundant system saturated with defects; the model of a redundant system with an arbitrary number of defects; the heterogeneous populaton model; the model of accumulation of defects with constant intensity of the flow of damage; the problem of the diversity of causes of death and their interaction; concluding remarks. Appendices: list of published animal life tables; features which show a positive correlation with the life span of organisms; features which show a negative correlation with the life span of organisms; features which show a weak correlation with the life span of organisms.