THE war on ageing has opened up a new front in the wilds of nature. After decades of poring over fruit flies and worms in the lab, it is time to find out how different species grow old naturally and how genes related to ageing play out in real environments.
Until recently, researchers who study the genetic and molecular mechanisms of ageing thought they had little to learn from wild animals. They tended to believe that few of them ever lived long enough to show the decrepitude of old age. So they opted for lab organisms because they are easy…
