One of the surprising results that emerges is that the mortality rate for most organisms remains approximately unchanged with age. In other words, the relative number of individuals that die in any time period is the same at any age. So, for example, if 5 percent of the surviving population dies between ages five and six, then 5 percent of the surviving population will also die between ages forty-five and forty-six and between ninety-five and ninety-six. This sounds nonintuitive, but if we put it a different way it will make more sense. A constant mortality rate means that the number of
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