The graying of America and the developed world is now such a widely recognized phenomenon that a new word has been coined — "geroscience" — to describe the intensified focus on studying the human aging process and figuring out what to do about it.

Aging research has gained such prominence that it has begun to spawn its own language — as "geroscience" strives to understand the "wellderly" and increase human "health span."

The Buck Institute for Age Research is launching a new scientific discipline called Geroscience, which will be focused on the interface of normal aging and age-related disease.