Chance, Development, and Aging

Chance, Development, and Aging analyses a subject that has been largely ignored until now: the sources of individual variations in development and ageing that cannot be attributed to genes or the external environment. And by doing so, this book develops new insight into ageing and the individual. Gathering and scrutinizing evidence from diverse sources, the authors examine those differences in individuals that arise during development and those that might influence outcomes of ageing. Through their research, they pose a new set of questions about the contribution of chance events during development, and although chance variations during development are well known within the sub-fields of developmental biology, there has been little recognition of their affects on variations in adult form and function. Here, the authors confront this issue with a fascinating hypothesis: chance variations in form and function, arising through development, affect individual base-line functions and individual responses to the external environment and so modify outcomes of ageing.;This book will undoubtedly benefit gerontologists, geneticists, reproductive biologists, and physiologists, and it will fascinate all those interested in the outcomes of ageing.