SCIENTISTS have identified a fourth phase of life which is helping them to predict death with stunning accuracy. It was thought that there were just three phases of life – childhood, where one does all of their physical growing, adulthood, which is for the majority of life, and late life, which is the final years and eventually leads to death. However, researchers have now identified a fourth phase which they have dubbed the "death spiral". By analysing how fruit flies age, researchers found that they enter the fourth phase of life, and with that they are able to predict when the fly might die with 80 per cent accuracy. The scientists now believe that this stage could also be found in humans. It wasn't until the 1990s that scientists had discovered the late life phase when they realised that the chances of dying plateau in later life. For example, they noticed that a 90-year old was at the same risk of death as a 100-year old, but they are yet to fully understand why this is. The