Bowhead whales can live past 200 years, and biologists studying their DNA have found unique gene variants for repairing damage that may explain why they almost never develop the cancers that kill most other large mammals before 80.

Bowhead whales can live past 200 years, and biologists studying their DNA have found unique gene variants for repairing damage that may explain why they almost never develop the cancers that kill most other large mammals before 80.

A bowhead whale calf born the year Thomas Jefferson took office could, in principle, still be alive today, drifting under the Arctic ice with a harpoon point from the 1840s lodged in its blubber. The species (Balaena mysticetus) is the longest-lived mammal on Earth, with peer-reviewed lifespan estimates exceeding 200 years, and biologists who have spent the last decade reading its genome think they are beginning to understand why a 60-tonne anim…