Radio Lab: Mortality

Is death a fact of life or a disease that can be cured (as some scientists claim)? When Dr. Leonard Hayflick discovered in 1962 a phenomena known as the 'Hayflick Limit' - that cells have a natural limit to their reproduction - the study of longevity was born. We hear from Dr. Cynthia Kenyon, whose tinkering with worm DNA brings her face-to-face with a grim reaper gene. We filter the modern search for the fountain of youth through personal stories of witnessing death... the death of a cell, the death of a loved one... and the aging of a society.