If we understand evolution 'we can live longer lives'

Professor Yaneer Bar-Yam, of the New England Complex Systems Institute and MIT, has argued that if we want to live longer lives, all we need do is understand evolution.

He told Today: "We heal and fight our own diseases. The question is, why doesn't our body repair itself enough to extend life longer?

"The answer that science gives has to do with understanding how evolution works".

He said that "the lifespan that we have... is actually genetically programmed for particular environmental conditions that existed during our evolutionary history.

"Evolution chooses the lifespan, and so we can intervene in that choice".