• Question: how are humans on the earth able to live up to a long age?

    Asked by yetty123 to Aggelos, Andrew, Eileen, Naomi, Shane on 14 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Andrew Jackson

      Andrew Jackson answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      lots of animals who are both intelligent and live in social groups live longer than other animals of a similar size such as crows, chimps, dolphins, parrots and gorillas. Humans are no different, and if anything we are even more intelligent and live in really very cooperative societies so perhaps its no surprise we live a long time. Also, we have invented science and medicine, we cook our food (which avoids parasites and bacteria), and we generally help out people who are ill or old.

    • Photo: Naomi Elster

      Naomi Elster answered on 15 Nov 2012:

      We didn’t always live up to a long age, and in fact, in many places in the world life expectancy is still as low as 30. Perhaps the biggest thing to make a difference is access to clean drinking water and sanitation, as contaminated drinking water is one of the biggest killers worldwide. In fact 4% of all deaths worldwide are from diarrhoea, which is just one of the diseases caused by drinking dirty water. Other reasons that we survive for a long time in this part of the world are that we have medicines – antibiotics are probably one of the most underappreciated lifesavers we have – and we understand how diseases spread and how to prevent disease. This can be as simple as using an alcohol rub when we visit someone in hospital, cooking our food and not eating food that is obviously gone off.

      Another very important reason that we survive to a long age is that we live in a well-functioning society that cares for its old and sick.

    • Photo: Eileen Diskin

      Eileen Diskin answered on 18 Nov 2012:

      Andrew and Naomi give great answers for this. It’s a combination of things, really – including medicines that have been developed, and the way our society works to make sure that as people get old they’re well looked after.

      But in some parts of the world, this isn’t the case – there are lots of people who don’t have access to medicines, which means that even a simple infection can become a much more serious problem.

      There are some animals on Earth that can live even longer than humans…some tortoises have lived to be nearly 200 years old!

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