The race between medicine and the clock
The trace follows one number over time: years of healthy life returned per year of research. Below 1.0, the clock still wins. At 1.0, life expectancy rises as fast as time passes, reaching longevity escape velocity. Solid lines are measured or reported; dashed lines are speculative. Click any wave to open it.
The same waves, read as a relay
Each advance gives the next one a new capability and exposes another limit. Read top to bottom: the field moves from measuring aging to slowing it, then to attempts at reversal.
What we know, by confidence
The field mixes hard results, reasonable inference, and venture-funded hope. Each claim carries a verdict, a confidence bar, a short reason, and the strongest counterargument.
Four possible curves for the next thirty years
Whether the curve crosses 1.0 in a decade, never, or only for some, depends on assumptions no one can yet pin down. Four ways the next thirty years could run.
How every cause of death defeats itself
Aging research runs the same loop on each failure mode. Remove one cause of death and the next becomes more prominent, so the loop starts again. That is both the field’s engine and its catch.