#4 Questioning the Mortality Plateau with Biologist Saul Newman

Sciencentric

As adults, our odds of dying doubles about every eight years. However, a high-profile paper published in Science this summer seems to tell a different story; past age 80 those increasing odds slow down and almost completely level off past 100, In this episode, we speak with Saul Newman, a biologist at the Australia National University in Canberra, who says this "mortality plateau" probably isn't real and can be chalked up to both sloppy science and problems with how the data was collected. Support us on Patreon: bit.ly/2GjxdoL Check our list of recommended science books: bit.ly/2zOIiYU Links: Human mortality 'plateau' may be statistical error, not hint of immortality https://eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-12/p-hm121118.php Errors as a primary cause of late-life mortality deceleration and plateaus https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2006776