Tom Kirkwood, Professor of Medicine and head of the Department of Gerontology at the University of Newcastle presents the first of five Reith Lectures investigating new insights from the frontiers of science and the choices and decisions we face in the uncharted territories of a greying world.

In his first lecture, recorded at the Royal Institution, Professor Kirkwood explores the revolution in human longevity. Science, he says, has new things to tell us about the process of ageing. We know now that ageing is neither inevitable nor necessary. We now understand that our cells are not programmed with some unavoidable sell-by date; we are not programmed to die.