Nature doesn’t specifically want you to die -- there is no “death gene”. People perish not because of some internal clock counting down to death, but because nature doesn’t bother to promote self-healing past a certain point.

In other words, it is typically benign ignorant neglect, not intentional malice, that results in your life ending prematurely.

There is at least one animal that scientists believe is immortal. The hydra, a microscopic freshwater animal shaped like a squid, does not seem to die from age-related causes. Planarians, a kind of flattened worm, may also be immortal. Among more complex animals, turtles may be immune to the effects of aging. They can die from disease or injury, but do not seem to grow old.

Biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey, Cambridge researcher, and chairman and chief science officer of the Methuselah Foundation, has a plan to engineer immortality for humans as well.