Biologists as basically different in their philosophical and biological views as W. H. Thorpe and Jacques Monod agree that the origin
of life is a difficult, and thus far intractable and
unsolved,
problem.
Perhaps the key point made by Hayflick, both above and in a recent paper titled, «Biological aging is no longer an
unsolved problem,» (and generally accepted among leading gerontology researchers) is that the body's repair and maintenance systems are the primary determinants
of longevity.14 The question then becomes, «What causes these systems to lose their ability to outpace the damage
of daily
life?»