How much do genetics actually dictate how long we live?

How much do genetics actually dictate how long we live? (Illustration by Katty Huertas/The Washington Post; iStock)

Uri Alon was long puzzled by a textbook statistic: longevity, the thinking went, was about 20 percent in our genes.

“That makes you think what’s the rest of the 80 percent: Is it the lifestyle? Why should we study genes for lifespan if it’s not that important? It kind of bothered me,” said Alon, a physicist-turned-systems biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.


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Sam Miller

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