《中英對照讀新聞》Living forever may never be possible: study 研究：長生不老或許永遠不可能

◎國際新聞中心

Is there a limit to how old humans could one day become? French researchers trying to answer the age-old question said they found evidence in two categories of people who lived long lives of a "biological barrier" to living forever.

有朝一日人類壽命是否有極限？試圖解答這個老問題的法國研究人員說，他們在兩類長壽者身上找到證據，發現要長生不老，有種「生理障礙」。

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The team used the recorded deaths of 1,205 "supercentenarians" who died between 1899 and 2013 aged 110 or older, and of 19,012 athletes who had competed in the Olympics from 1896 to 2012.

研究團隊使用1899年到2013年間以超過110歲高齡辭世的1205名「超級人瑞」，以及1896年到2012年間曾參加奧運的1萬9012名運動員的死亡紀錄。

The athletes are considered among the longest-living people.

運動員被認為是最長壽的族群之一。

For the supercentenarians, the researchers found longevity had steadily increased until 1997, when the rate levelled out. A similar ceiling was observed among the athlete group. These trends "provide no signs of a recent increased longevity pattern among the longest-lived," which is not good news for people with average life expectancies, the authors wrote in the Journal of Gerontology.

研究人員發現，超級人瑞的壽命穩定增加，直到1997年增加率持平為止。觀察運動員族群也發現類似上限。作者在《老年病學期刊》寫道，這些趨勢「沒有提供最長壽者近來壽命模式增加的跡象」，對壽命在平均值左右的人來說不是好消息。

Had there been a non-stop upward trend, they would have expected to find evidence of more people living ever longer, the team said. Instead, their results support theories of an "invisible barrier" to a non-stop increase in longevity.

研究團隊說，若能發現持續增加的趨勢，他們原本預期會發現越多人能活得越久的證據。不過，他們的研究結果支持壽命持續增加有種「無形障礙」的理論。

新聞辭典

age-old：形容詞，由來已久的。例如：age-old traditions（古老的傳統）。

ceiling：名詞，限制。例句：They have set a ceiling on pay rises.（他們訂定調薪上限。）

invisible：形容詞，無形的、看不見的。例句：Tourism brings in 40％ of the island’s invisible earnings.（觀光業為這座島嶼帶來40％的無形收益。）