Do we take longevity for granted these days? Everyone expects to live a long life but it wasn’t always so easy, and advances in technology have played an important role in increasing our life expectancy.

It’s staggering that our ancestors faced the same possibility of dying at 32 as we do at 72. Of course, technology isn’t the only factor that has increased our life expectancy, but its role can often be underestimated.

Malaria is one massive problem that technology has helped to fight. It’s astonishing to think that malaria has killed more people than all wars put together but technological intervention has helped. Even simple things like insecticide bed nets have helped to reduce malaria deaths in children under 5 years by 20%. Moreover, researchers are now even mapping how human travel affects the spread of malaria in Kenya by using cell-phone location data. Research like this will hopefully help reduce incidents of malaria even further.

There are so many other areas where technology has helped saved lives and you can find out more in this info-graphic from Mission Safety Services.