Why humans die -- an unsolved biological problem

Abstract

Mortality is an instrument of natural selection. Evolutionary motivated theories imply its irreversibility and life history dependence. This is inconsistent with mortality data for protected populations. Accurate analysis yields mortality law, which is specific for their evolutionary unprecedented conditions, yet universal for species as evolutionary remote as humans and flies. The law is exact, instantaneous, reversible, stepwise, and allows for a rapid (within less than two years for humans) and significant mortality decrease at any (but very old) age.