In 1939, British statisticians Major Greenwood and J.O. Irwin published a little-noticed article in the journal Human Biology that contained a profoundly unexpected discovery. Greenwood and Irwin were studying mortality figures for women 93 and older. They expected to see the death rate rising with age, as it does throughout adult life. But they did not. Instead, between age 93 and 100, the acceleration in death rates came to a screeching stop. Little old ladies who were 99 were no more likely to die than those who were 93. (Michael R. Rose, “Aging isn’t cumulative process of progressive chemical damage — it can stop”)

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Featured Image: Lessons in Longevity, Okinawa’s secret, New Scientist