Getting older feels so inevitable that we rarely ask why it happens at all — but ageing is a genuine scientific puzzle, and researchers are steadily uncovering what actually wears out in a body over time. This episode explores the biology of getting old.

You’ll come away understanding why cells can’t divide forever, what telomeres and cellular senescence are, why ageing isn’t a single process but many, and where the science of living longer honestly stands.

Talking Science is sponsored by Kinsoft. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au

Further reading: National Institute on Ageing – “What causes ageing?”; Nature – “The hallmarks of ageing”; Andrew Steele, Ageless.