With advances in medicine, science, and technology allowing humans to live longer than ever, can we finally crack the code of ageing and stop it altogether?

Subscribe & Review on iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter

On 4th August 1997, Jeanne Louise Calment died in a French nursing home. Born 122 years and 164 days earlier, Jeanne currently holds the record for the greatest fully authenticated age to which any human has ever lived. And with the ever-growing average life expectancy for humans showing no sign of slowing down, how close are we to cracking the code of longevity?

Helping Nicola Davis delve into the age-old problem of ageing this week, prominent biomedical gerontologist Dr Aubrey De Grey reveals his unique, seven-step approach to the problem of ageing. We ask Harvard University’s Dr Justin Werfel why programmed death might be a good thing. And we hear how the University of Kent’s Dr Jenny Tullet is using roundworms to reveal clues about the genetics of ageing.