Researchers claim to have discovered the maximum age 'ceiling' for human lifespan.

研究人员称，他们发现了人类寿命的上限。

Despite growing life expectancy¹ because of better nutrition, living conditions and medical care, Dutch scientists say our longevity² cannot keep extending forever.

荷兰科学家表示，虽然营养条件、生活环境和医疗水平的进步提高了人类的预期寿命，但是人类的寿命不会无限延长。

Women can only live to a maximum of 115.7 years, they said, while men can only hope for 114.1 years at the most.

科学家称，女性最多能活到115.7岁，而男性则为114.1岁。

The research by statisticians at Tilburg and Rotterdam's Erasmus universities said however there were still some people who had bent³ the norm, like French woman Jeanne Calment who died at the ripe old age of 122 years and 164 days in 1997.

但是，蒂尔堡大学和鹿特丹伊拉斯姆斯大学两校统计学家的研究表示，还是有一些人突破了这一极值。比如，来自法国的雅娜•卡尔芒就活了122岁零164天，于1997年去世。

Lifespan is the term used to describe how long an individual lives, while life expectancy is the average duration of life that individuals in an age group can expect to have - a measure of societal wellbeing.

寿命表示的是每个人的生命期限，而预期寿命是指同年龄段中的平均预计寿命，预期寿命是社会福利的一种衡量标准。

The team mined data over 30 years from some 75,000 Dutch people whose exact ages were recorded at the time of death.

该统计小组连续30年对荷兰约75000名居民进行了数据采集，记录了接受调查者去世时的确切年龄。

'On average, people live longer, but the very oldest among us have not gotten older over the last thirty years,' Professor John Einmahl said.

约翰•艾马尔教授称：“人们的平均寿命延长了，但是最高年龄在过去30年内并没有增加。”

'There is certainly some kind of a wall here. Of course the average life expectancy has increased,' he said, pointing out the number of people turning 95 in The Netherlands had almost tripled.

“人的生命是有休止符的。当然人类平均寿命变长了。”他指出，荷兰95岁以上的人数几乎增加了两倍。

'Nevertheless, the maximum ceiling itself hasn't changed,' he said.

“然而，最高年龄一直没有变化。”

The Dutch findings, to be published next month, come in the wake of those by US-based researchers who last year claimed a similar age ceiling.

这项调查结果将于下月发表，美国研究人员去年曾发布了类似的人类年龄上限研究结果。

However, that study by Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York found that exceptionally long-lived individuals were not getting as old as before.

但是，纽约阿尔伯特•爱因斯坦医学院的研究也发现，如今格外长寿的人寿命也没有过去那么长。

Einmahl and his researchers disputed that, saying their conclusions deduced by using a statistical⁴ brand called 'Extreme Value Theory', showed almost no fluctuation⁵ in maximum lifespan.

艾马尔及其研究人员对此表示异议，他们说那项美国的研究结果是由统计学的“极值理论”推导出来的，其结果中，人类的最高寿命几乎没有波动。

译者注：极值理论是处理与概率分布的中值相离极大的情况的理论，常用来分析概率罕见的情况，如百年一遇的地震、洪水等，在风险管理和可靠性研究中时常用到。

They claim it provides the most accurate assessment⁶.

美国研究人员说这是最精确的评估方法。

However, scores of other research teams have challenged the idea of a limit so close to 100.

然而其他研究小组的研究结果与年龄极限在100岁附近的结果不同。

Earlier this year, another team of Dutch researchers, this time from the University of Groningen, said 125 is achievable by 2070.

今年早些时候，另一组来自荷兰格罗宁根大学的研究人员称，2070年人类的最高寿命可达125岁。

Meanwhile, a team from McGill University challenge whether there can be any limit on how long people can live.

同时，麦吉尔大学的研究小组也在探究人的寿命是否有上限。