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What causes ageing?

We age because natural selection lets us down.

Natural selection gets weaker after our reproductive life starts. Once we are able to have children, we can give our genes to a future generation. If a gene has not killed you, or otherwise prevented you from having a child, then that gene will be passed on.

The genes that don't act until late in life are also transmitted to our children, so they escape the force of natural selection. Natural selection cannot get rid of the genes that express harmful effects when we are old.


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