People are twice as likely to inherit their lifespan than was previously thought, according to a team of researchers led by scientists at the Weizmann Institute in Israel. The “genetic contribution” to how long a person lives is around half, the team found, following a trawl of health databases in Denmark and Sweden. “For many years, human lifespan was thought to be shaped almost entirely by non-genetic factors, which led to considerable scepticism about the role of genetics in ageing and about the feasibility of identifying genetic determinants of longevity,” said study lead author and Weizmann Institute PhD student Ben Shenhar. Other recent research has pointed to a potential role for taurine, an amino acid, in slowing the ageing process. Still other scientists have pointed to the 200-year lifespan of the bowhead whale – a longevity that has been put down to the Arctic giant having a protein in its cells that protects from carcinogenic mutations.

Source: The Star February 18, 2026 14:05 UTC