Why Females Live Longer Than Males:

[ismnotwasm]

Is It Due to the Father's Sperm?

ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2009) — Researchers in Japan have found that female mice produced by using genetic material from two mothers but no father live significantly longer than mice with the normal mix of maternal and paternal genes. Their findings provide the first evidence that sperm genes may have a detrimental effect on lifespan in mammals

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091201192105.htm

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Sciencedaily, which has some the most atrocious headlines in science news, is a guilty pleasure of mine, pleasure as long as I stay away from their gender studies, which tend to raise my blood pressure. Anyway, this one actually made me laugh, mostly because of this lovely paragraph:

"The researchers write: "Our results are consistent with models based on sex-specific selection of reproductive strategies, e.g. male individuals maximizing fitness by an intense investment in reproduction by way of a larger body size in order to achieve more breeding opportunities, resulting in shorter longevity…. In contrast, female individuals usually do not engage in such costly male behaviors and instead tend to optimize their reproductive output by conserving energy for delivery, providing for offspring, foraging and predator avoidance. Our results further suggested sex differences in longevity originating at the genome level, implying that the sperm genome has a detrimental effect on longevity in mammals."

Oy vey.

[femrap]

1. I thought it was because

wives finally had time to enjoy themselves.:evilgrin: