Death. It's not only inevitable and frightening, it's intriguing and fascinating-especially today, when science continues to make ever more stunning advances in the investigation of the oldest and darkest of mysteries. To discover the how and why of death, unearth its roots, and expose the mechanics of its grim handiwork is, at least in some sense, to master it. And in the process, if a criminal can be caught or closure found, so much the better.
Enter Robert Mann, forensic anthropologist, deputy scientific director of the U.S. government's Central Identification Laboratory, and, some...

Throughout life, DNA reproduces and replaces itself continually. In optimal conditions, the copies are perfect, but as environment, diet and stress begin to take their toll, so the DNA becomes damaged and this leads to aging and disease.