Re: News at <http://longevity-science.org/>

Tim Tyler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>  wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> Leonid Gavrilov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote or quoted:
> 
> > "Does Exceptional Human Longevity Come With High Cost of Infertility?
> > Testing the Evolutionary Theories of Aging"
> > http://longevity-science.org/IABG-Gavrilova.html
> 
> I enjoyed this one - my thoughts:
> 
> The paper says:
> 
> ``What is really important is that the chances of being childless do not
>   demonstrate any increase for long-lived women (lifespan 90+ years).''
> 
> From the graph, it /does/ seem like there is an increase in the > 80 yo
> groups - though its significance is not clear.


*** The error bars provided at this graph indicate that there is no
any statistical significance in this small fluke.


> My other thought is that it would be nice to have data for other
> population areas.
> 
> The idea that there is a trade-off between reproductive success and
> longevity is largely based on allocation of limited resources.
> 
> Ladies in european aristocratic families may be relatively less
> likely to experience resource shortages as a result of expenditure
> on children - and so might avoid much of the resulting impact on
> their lifespans - by being better equipped financially than most
> members of the population.
> 
> The other obvious bias in the sampling is the one towards females.


*** Please elaborate in more detail, where have you found an obvious
bias towards females in our study.

Thank you for your interest and useful comments !

Kind regards,

-- Leonid Gavrilov
Author of the book "The Biology of Life Span"
http://longevity-science.org/index.html#Book