Tuesday 18 June 2002

Pic of the day: Sometimes they even act superior... Screenshot from The Sims on Holiday.

Why women are superior

We've known for a while that women live, on average, longer than men. Even before they are born, the boys are more likely to die, so it's not just social factors. Actually there is an obvious reason for this. But we humans are experts at overlooking the obvious, so I thought I would spell it out. Once you understand, you will not easily forget it again.

First a short introduction for the kids that may read this. You have probably seen that children look a bit like their parents, and sometimes like their grandparents too. Brothers and sisters also often look alike. People have always known this, but as late as 100 years ago nobody really knew why. Today we know it is because the "recipe" for each of us is written in every cell in the body. It is coded on very long molecules, kinda like a song or a movie is coded on a tape, but the "tapes" are very small. You cannot even see them in a common school microscope. These "tapes" are packed in small things we call chromosomes. We have 23 pairs of them, 23 chromosomes from our father and 23 from our mother. In each of the billions of cells in the body, there is a complete set. But one of the pairs is different ... it is only really a pair in girls. They have two X chromosomes, but boys have an X and an Y.

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So far, all the adults are probably with me already. But what you may not know is that the Y chromosome is not like an Y at all, or an X with a missing part. It is more like a dot, compared to the X chromosome. It has only a very few genes (recipes for proteins). Its genes can change the ovaries to testicles, if they kick in early enough, while you're still a tiny little fetus. From then on, the damage is done: You'll remain a man for life. There are also some more genes that a man needs to become a father. The technical details here are not important, it is enough to know that the tiny Y chromosome does very little except make us into men. There are a few genes that are like those on X, but very few.

Now why do we have two sets of genes? Well, it makes for some much needed variation, as they are mixed and matched for each new generation. But it is also a backup. If one gene fails, the gene on the other chromosome is usually OK and the body can use it to create the proteins you need. Usually a mutated gene does not work at all, so the body will simply use the other gene twice as often. But sometimes it makes a faulty protein, and then the good protein will have to compete with the bad version. This person may be a bit sick, but will still survive much better than one who does not have the right gene at all.

Now look again at the poor male. He has 22 pairs of chromosomes ... and one chromosome that is standing all alone except for the little dot beside it. Unlike the Y chromosome, the X is not all given over to making a person into a woman. That would be quite a woman, don't you think? No, many of the genes here are important to build various parts of the body, and especially the brain. Now if there is a mutation here, and it is a bad one, there is no other X to make it all all right. (Almost no mutations are good, no matter what Marvel Comics tell you.) Girls, on the other hand, have XX and so they can fix it just like any other bad mutation.

This is the reason why almost no girls suffer from color blindness, but many more boys. The same holds true for an illness that make people bleed and bleed and not heal like most of us do. And also many problems with the brain. Remember, the brain has extra many genes on the X chromosome. So when things go bad in the brain, it is more likely to happen in a boy than in a girl.

When things go seriously wrong with a mutation, it often means death. This is why many boys die before they are even born. Boys are also more likely to die when they are small. And most boys do not learn as fast as girls: Usually girls learn to tie their shoe laces or read half a year before boys do. It's not all that easy to use a brain if you have less of the recipes for making it. But from the age of 18, the girl's brains stop growing while the boys keep growing brain till they are 21, so they end up just as smart. On average, that is.

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There are more stupid men than stupid women. But there are also more genius men. If you have the right genes, no bad mutations in yourself or your mother, then you can go straight on and build the perfect brain. You do not have to compromise with a less perfect recipe in the neighboring chromosome. So a smart woman is likely to get smart sons, but a smart man cannot be so sure. His genes may be mixed with poorer genes from the other family and lose some of the effect on his daughters. And his sons will have only their mother's X. Now the X chromosome does not have all the brain genes, but quite a few of them. So think twice about that dumb girl, guys. She may be easier to catch but you may cringe every time you hear your son ... (Of course, you may come to do that anyway!)

Well, that was that, really. Women are more healthy because they have more recipes for the stuff we are built from.[1] But when it comes to intelligence, they tend to be more normal: Not so dumb, but not so smart either. Some of them are extreme, of course, but it is not nearly as common as with men.

Remember: It is not really "XY", it is more like "X,".

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([1]Not to confuse y'all now, but there is probably one more reason why women live longer. Supposedly they make hormones that help against illness, while men make hormones that help build muscle. But clearly this is not the only reason, since children make very little of these hormones and that's when the difference is greatest.)