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The dynamic upper limit of human lifespan

View ORCID ProfileSaul Justin Newman, View ORCID ProfileSimon Easteal
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/124800
Saul Justin Newman
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organziation;
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Simon Easteal
The John Curtin School of Medical Research
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  • For correspondence: simon.easteal@anu.edu.au
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Abstract

We respond to claims by Dong et al. that human lifespan is limited below 125 years. Using the log-linear increase in mortality rates with age to predict the upper limits of human survival we find, in contrast to Dong et al., that the limit to human lifespan is historically flexible and increasing. This discrepancy can be explained by Dong et al.'s use of data with variable sample sizes, age-biased rounding errors, and log(0) instead of log(1) values in linear regressions. Addressing these issues eliminates the proposed 125-year upper limit to human lifespan.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
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  • Posted April 5, 2017.

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The dynamic upper limit of human lifespan
Saul Justin Newman, Simon Easteal
bioRxiv 124800; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/124800
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The dynamic upper limit of human lifespan
Saul Justin Newman, Simon Easteal
bioRxiv 124800; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/124800

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