Wednesday, June 09, 2004
I LIKE THE PART ABOUT THE "ADONIS CHROMOSOME"
Superstar geneticist Bryan Sykes is a pithy interviewee:
My guess is that the Y chromosome of every living man has spent at least one generation in the testis of a warlordSykes, the author of 2001 best seller "The Seven Daughters of Eve," has recently published a sort of sequel: "Adam's Curse: A Future Without Men." Besides transposing the Battle of the Sexes to the genetic realm, Sykes predicts the decline of the male gender:
By my estimate, in about 5,000 generations - 125,000 years - male fertility will be roughly 1 percent of what it is now. Mutations in Y chromosomes are already known to reduce male fertility. So I see a slow decline in men's fertility until, eventually, men can no longer breed naturally.Silver lining? 125,000 years may be enough time for lots of easy boy-doesn't-meet-girl jokes to be made.
