There has been a lot of talk in the media about a new paper which reports that the Y chromosome is not deteriorating, as had been previously inferred from the data. In the 2004 Bryan Sykes wrote Adam’s Curse: A Future Without Men which used this model as a framing device (and naturally elicited great general interest). You can read some earlier critiques at Gene Expression Classic. I never paid attention to this debate in the details because it seemed ludicrous on the face of it. Bryan Sykes’ was predicting the extinction of males in ~100,000 years. Right, we just happen to be living right before the genomic Götterdämmerung. I don’t think so. Sometimes absurd results which fly in the face of plain history and robust theory are profoundly insightful. But most of the time they’re just false leads.
Razib Khan’s degrees are in biochemistry and biology. He has blogged about genetics since 2002, previously worked in software development, is an Unz Foundation Junior Fellow and lives in the western US. He loves habaneros.
February 24th, 2012 at 9:54 am
IMO, it’s likely we are entering an era of ever expanding fertility treatments, which will include the “Artificial Uterus” or “Uterus Replacement” in the coming decades, and then the shoe will permanently be on the other foot?!
February 24th, 2012 at 10:08 am
How quaint, a technologist underestimating biological complexity. P. Conroy, did you run that scenario by your HAL-9000 computer?
February 24th, 2012 at 10:51 am
@mike,
Yes, and the output was, “Affirmative”
By artificial I mean, not attached to a living female. Many organs can be kept alive for an almost indefinite amount of time via mechanical pumping of blood etc. Why not a uterus?
February 24th, 2012 at 11:09 am
The argumentation was that in some mammal species the Y chromosome (not males as such) has vanished and its role taken by some other chromosome.
February 24th, 2012 at 11:28 am
Before inventing artifical uterus, technologists + biologists need to find a better way of stimulating eggs growth and extracting them. Right now, the process is painful, time consuming, and expensive.
Whats the growth rate of cheap surrogacy like?
February 25th, 2012 at 3:42 am
@pconroy, hehe, O.K., that’s a bit more reasonable. I’m still not holding my breath, though. (Except in the airlock.)
February 25th, 2012 at 9:54 am
Brian Sykes doesn’t give a rats ass about real science anymore. He took the lazy mans’ choice and sold out to become an infotainment salesmen. He is a good looking blond guy so he’ll have plenty more money making opportunities to blather on TV and write really bad popsci books like this one.
February 25th, 2012 at 12:33 pm
#7 dave,
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not questioning your taste in men, but have you actually seen Sykes? He is 65 and grey-haired.
February 25th, 2012 at 1:21 pm
#8, i think perhaps he meant spencer wells?
February 26th, 2012 at 5:40 am
yep, my bad
February 28th, 2012 at 5:24 pm
I quite like the idea of the uterus being where it is at present. Let us think about stabilising our genomic inheritance as men and improving the sanitation of our females so that our manhood (vajra) can enjoy the womanhood(yoni) without risk of infection. Maybe anal ejection could be resited a little to increase the separation between the anus and the vaginal orifice in the female (at present ca 3/4 inch = 0.7cm). This would better help us as Terrestrial Lillium souls to remain consistent with Jehovan biological design and pleasure.