Amazon.com description: Product Description: This text summarizes the most significant facts and ideas on the phenomenon of finite life span, using an interdisciplinary approach based on quantitative analysis of survival regularities in human populations and in animal models. The survival analysis is shown to be of major significance in tackling a wide range of problems such as: whether life span is programmed or not; whether there is an absolute superior limit for the durtion of life; what is the relative role of social and biological factors for human life span?; why do women live longer than men?; what are the prospects and ways of life span prolongation? This text should be of interest to researchers, graduates and teachers in the fields of biology, gerontology and demography.