How to Double a Worm's Life at Death's Door
On day 21 of adulthood, three quarters of the worms are already dead, and the survivors barely twitch. That is exactly when the scientists stepped in and gave them another 26 days, even though the control animals lived only four. Aging, it turns out, is not the accumulation of breakdowns but a slide down an unstable slope: you don't have to clear away the rocks, you just have to make the grade gentler.