As usual, I prefer reporting by professional journalists to the press-release recycling service ScienceDaily, the source of the link kindly submitted here. On a

As usual, I prefer reporting by professional journalists to the press-release recycling service ScienceDaily, the source of the link kindly submitted here. On a drive today, I heard a report on this newly published study on National Public Radio, http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/10/08/230175345/delaying-aging-may-have-a-bigger-payoff-than-fighting-diseases http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/10/08/230175345/delayin... and the strength of that report, brief as it is, is that other researchers were interviewed besides those with the new publication in Health Affairs. The Health Affairs study, at bottom, is an argument for a change in public policy to have more funding of basic research on slowing aging. And maybe that is a good idea. (My bias would be to support that kind of research, as I am a good bit older than most participants on Hacker News.) Whether doing a lot of that kind of research will actually result in safe and effective means to slow aging and thus prolong healthy lifespans is the $7.1 trillion question.