Escalating use of pills and powders will no longer be confined to the young. Sophie Goodchild reports on the coming drug age

It took more than the small matter of a ruined £42,000 holiday to dent the spirits of the intrepid passengers of the ill-starred Aurora as they came ashore at the Mayflower terminal in Southampton yesterday.

Jacques Santini last night sought to heal the growing divisions within the French camp by announcing that his ageing captain, Marcel Desailly, would not start against England in this evening's crucial opening Group B match.

Melanie Henwood From a speech by the health and social care analyst to the Health and Care group for the Millennium Debate of the Age

SCIENTISTS HAVE for the first time witnessed the many genetic changes that take place during ageing and have found evidence to support the idea that low-calorie diets can extend lifespan.

Sir: Your forecast of additional millennium bug problems after 9 September 1999 (report, 19 July) is very unlikely to be realised. Speaking as a now geriatric former software writer I am 99.99 per cent certain that nothing of note will happen on or around that date.

THE SECRET of keeping your mental faculties in old age lies in your genes, according to new research.

ONLY TWO of the countless creams and lotions on the market that claim to combat ageing are any use, a skin expert said yesterday.

FRESH CONCERNS have been raised about the safety of human cloning with new findings that suggest Dolly the cloned sheep may be ageing faster than normal.

While most of the world appears obsessed with youth, Yvonne Cook looks at new ways of thinking about the implications for individuals and society of an ageing population

It is always something of a shock to recognise that those who are the oldest members of society at the end of the century were the very youngest at the beginning.

CHANGES THAT occur with ageing are numerous and include increased risk of cancer, poorer wound healing, a less effective immune system and an increasing interest in why and how we age. There is no shortage of theories; they range from assuming there is a biological clock that winds us down, to placing the blame on cells losing their ability to multiply.

MASS SCREENING of the population for the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis is not worthwhile and checks should be limited to those at high risk, an expert committee said yesterday.