People still disagree with it. But the point is that people have been going in so many different directions that a lot of people could not be brought to bear on one subject. I think that is changing now. Certainly, the free radical theory has inspired more research than any other concept in aging, there's no question about that. There are more data related to that theory than on any other subject in aging.
Most facts are consistent with the theory.
Well, I think you have to actually accept that at some point in time you establish a fact, and maybe we're reaching that point now. Probably, we're past that point, or past the point when something which is called a theory becomes a fact and you just take it as such. One thing that I think will help is to establish how a given level of oxidant stress governs life span. He showed that pigeons divert a smaller fraction of the oxygen they consume to the superoxide radical. They suggest, and I think this is correct, that this is the same thing as food restriction.