Quote: (09-09-2012 04:46 PM)Norset Wrote:
I read about this last year. Sort of makes me regret not studying genetics/stem cell research/bioengineering.
For a long time it has been known that a man's sperm cells mutate throughout his life. So before we do something more advanced, like trying to determine if females' bodies are actively trying to abort the fetuses of weaker men (to me that seems plausible, remember that most mammals do not have close to a 100% surivial to adulthood rate of their young, so weakening the fetus is essentially a "late abortion" - it will be taken out by an early childhood disease), we need to figure out if these mutations of the sperm cell are random or affected by the man's life (it's probably both). To me the latter seems more plausible, but of course I do not have any proof.
Egg cells are present at birth, and the dna they contain hardly change - it's there since the woman was in her mom's womb.
Reading about this sometime last year was indeed mind-blowing. How I lead my life (nutrition, health, personalty, mental health...) will affect my offspring genetically? Great news; more motivation to be the best I can be.
As for the bolded, the book Sperm Wars (which I think all guys here should read) outline how "alpha" males (using CEO's, President's and Vice-Presidents as a proxy) have sons at higher rate then normal, something like 60% if my memory serves me correctly. Also very attractive couples have more females. Both of these facts make sense from an evolutionary point of view.