In 2023, French women had a life expectancy at birth of 85.7, compared to 80 years for men, and a similar gap is observed in the rest of the world. Have Japanese researchers uncovered the secret to female longevity? They have at least done so for the first time regarding a vertebrate animal, the turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri). It seems that the discoveries made with this freshwater fish can be applied to humans. Tohru Ishitani, interviewed by The Guardian, believes that «the aging process in the turquoise killifish is similar to that of humans, which I don’t think is really more complicated.» The biologist and his colleagues at Osaka University in Japan have just shown that the mystery of the difference in life expectancy between the sexes in the turquoise killifish, and probably in other species, including humans, is explained by the precursor cells of the eggs in females and by
