As People Live Longer, How Can We Live Better?

The useful part

When the Stanford Center on Longevity launched in 2007, founding director Laura Carstensen spent a lot of time correcting misperceptions. Another persistent misperception was that "longevity" is a euphemism for aging and that the Stanford Center on Longevity was a center on aging. It is a metric of length." The center's interest is in the challenges and opportunities that longer lives present.

How it works

• I spoke with Carstensen about what she's learned along the way and what's next.

What to take from it

While the center is keenly interested in older people, in Carstensen's view, "longer lives have implications for every stage of life, and the roots of many problems faced at advanced ages have their roots much earlier in life." The center's mission is to use longer lives to improve quality of life at all ages.

Example or evidence

• You are going to extend life?'" Carstensen was clear that the center's aim was not to increase lifespans—which had nearly doubled during the 20th century—but rather to build societies that accommodated that...

Details worth keeping

"The initial response people had was, 'Like the Methuselah Foundation? As Carstensen noted often, "Longevity is not synonymous with aging. After nearly 20 years, Carstensen, the Fairleigh S.