Ageing: Why Does Evolution Kill?

Although ageing is one of humanity's most fundamental biological challenges, we still do not fully understand what it is or why it exists. Most scientists believe that ageing is linked to the accumulation of biochemical damage over time, yet even its precise definition remains the subject of debate. One of the greatest unresolved puzzles concerns its evolutionary origin: if natural selection is driven by reproductive success and the transmission of genes, why has ageing persisted? Why has evolution not eliminated it? And what mechanisms underlie the ageing process?
In this book, Pyotr Lidsky presents the Pathogen Control Theory, a provocative alternative to conventional explanations of ageing. According to this hypothesis, ageing is not simply the consequence of wear and tear but the result of a genetic program that evolved to eliminate older individuals. Why would such a program exist? Because older organisms are more likely to carry chronic infectious diseases that could spread to their relatives. In this view, ageing functions as part of an immune strategy—not to protect the individual, but to safeguard genetically related members of the population.
Much of the book is devoted to biological phenomena that remain difficult to explain using classical theories of ageing. Why do some species show little or no ageing? Why do others die immediately after reproduction? Why do queen bees live dramatically longer than worker bees despite sharing the same genome? And why do flying animals generally outlive their non-flying counterparts?
The Pathogen Control Theory offers a unifying framework for addressing these questions while suggesting new directions for research into the mechanisms of human ageing and the development of interventions that could one day influence them.

Pyotr Lidsky. Ageing: Why Does Evolution Kill?. — St. Petersburg: Piter, 2026.
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