EXPLANATION OF THE GRG LOGO:

Survival curves for any biological species are typically plotted on a graph where the ordinate (Y-axis) is the percent [0-100] percent of the population still living while the abscissa (X-axis) is a measurement of time (usually in years when comparing mammals and [0-200] years in this particular case). Throughout the recorded history of our own species, we have witnessed dramatic rectangularizations of human longevity as represented by the set of the first four "sigmoid-shaped" survival curves. Each of these four curves, however, terminates at a point in the year "122" The Guinness Book of Records date for the oldest known person possessing proper documentation [Birth Certificate]). This is the genetically-determined point of maximum life span for our species. The arrows depict the parameter time moving from 5,000 BC to 0 AD, to 1900, and ultimately to the present [2000] at the 50th percentile (average life expectancy).

The fifth and last curve, on the other hand, however, represents a true right shift in the curve (forecast for the year 2025) in which the average life expectancy at birth is expected to be 150, and maximum lifespan may be expected to fall beyond the year 200.

Thus, this logo embodies the long-term goal of the Gerontology Research Group.

An Exercise for the Reader:

If, instead of plotting the temporal parameter throughout history as a set of four curves, one were to plot these curves in a three-dimensional (Z-axis) manner as a surface with somewhat finer granularity -- say using 100-year increments (centuries) starting at 5,000 BC and going to the present -- the result would reveal a number of interesting "topographic" features. It is left as an exercise to identify the "obstetric cleft" associated with a radical improvement in maternal mortality statistics occurring in developed countries that routinely practice sterile deliveries and C-sections when needed (typically 20 percent of all live births). A so-called "public health precipice" also appears (in the last five hundred years), associated with significant improvements in sanitation and pure drinking-water supplies that did not typically exist for cities at earlier times.