The genetic domino effect that his team uncovered may have less to do with extending life, he says, then with making it possible to survive caloric restriction at all.
"Probably the restriction of movements by clothing could increase the length of sleep, and a cold environment makes swaddling possible without overheating, " she says.
"The consortium see the mouse genome as the sort of basic, pre-competitive resource that should be available to all scientists, without restriction, in order to assure that the potential of the human genome is realised as rapidly as possible, " a spokesperson told BBC News Online.