However, humans are not the only organisms within the biosphere to show ageing and the use of cross-species approaches has demonstrated that common ageing processes exist and allowed some of the common genetic pathways controlling them to be identified. Mutants in these pathways either delay or accelerate the development of late life diseases giving rise to extended healthy lives or progerias, respectively. These advances in fundamental understanding open opportunities for a more detailed investigation of the key causal mechanisms underlying ageing and the exploitation of that knowledge for improved interventions in later life.