Daniel Chang Kuo

1 Introduction Most biomedical research is conducted on model organisms living under standardized laboratory conditions (Rosenthal and Brown 2007). Unlike natural populations, model organisms living in lab settings have stable access to food and shelter, experience mild, near-constant climatic conditions, and often have limited, static social experiences (Zipple et al. 2023).

Abstract The aging of mammalian epigenomes fundamentally alters cellular functions, and such changes are the focus of many healthspan and lifespan studies. However, studies of this process typically use mouse models living under standardized laboratory conditions and neglect the impact of variation in social, physical, microbial, and other aspects of the living environment on age-related changes.

Abstract Contingency (or 'luck') in early life plays an important role in shaping individuals' development. When individuals live within larger societies, social experiences may cause the importance of early contingencies to be magnified or dampened.