Laurence Mueller is Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine. His research interests are in life-history evolution, aging, and the population genetic aspects of forensic DNA typing. Dr. Mueller is the author of over 100 research papers in these fields as well as two books: Stability in Model Populations and Evolution and Ecology of the Organism.

Casandra Rauser is the Assistant Director of Research Development for the School of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine.

Michael Rose is Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Evolutionary Biology of Aging (OUP, 1991), and was awarded the Busse Research Prize by the World Congress of Gerontology in 1997.

"As an attempt to justify the existence of plateaus as direct outcomes of natural selection, the book is as good as it gets. The authors do a thorough job of presenting their ideas, along with the models and data they believe back these ideas up." -- Thomas B. L. Kirkwood, Institute for Ageing & Health, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom