Ig Nobel Prize winner Saul Justin Newman has an essay in today’s New York Times about the research that won him the 2024 Ig Nobel Prize for demography. (The Times did not mention that the research won a prize. The Times did write an extensive report about it, shortly after that prize was awarded.) Newman’s essay begins:
The allure of extreme longevity has beckoned for centuries. Research careers and marketing campaigns have been built on the idea that we can live longer, healthier lives by emulating long-lived people. It is a comforting thought, frequently used for research funding bids and to sell cookbooks.
Unfortunately, the data on people living to an unusually old age is deeply flawed. I tracked down data on 80 percent of the world’s people 110 or older and found that in many cases their advanced age is highly improbable. The errors in the data were striking.
The oldest man ever recorded, Jiroemon Kimura from Japan, has three birthdays: One is fudged, one is a typo, and one is supposedly true. He was validated as the oldest man in 2012 by Guinness World Records….