How mates and sexual rivals affect reproductive costs, lifespan and ageing

该项目旨在剖析生殖的复杂成本，弥合进化和生物医学方法之间的旧鸿沟，以了解衰老和寿命。仅仅检测到另一个人的气味，而没有遇到他们，可能会导致一个人成熟得更快，衰老得更快，或者寿命更短。这些代价，以及随后的交配可以使成年衰老和寿命恢复到“正常”的事实，正在引起对繁殖成本的重新评估--这是进化中一个重要但神秘的概念。这个项目希望解决如何以及为什么一个伴侣的身体存在，或者这样一个伴侣的气味线索，可以对衰老和晚年表现产生如此巨大的影响。

This project aims to dissect the complex costs of reproduction, bridging an old divide between evolutionary and biomedical approaches to understanding ageing and lifespan. Merely detecting the smell of another individual, without ever encountering them, can cause an individual to mature sooner, age faster, or live a shorter life. These costs, and the fact that subsequent mating can restore adult ageing and lifespan to "normal" are causing a re-evaluation of the costs of reproduction - an important but enigmatic concept in evolution. This project expects to resolve how and why the physical presence of a mate, or odour cues of such a mate, can have such dramatic effects on ageing and late-life performance.