Degeneration Y: Adam is on the eve of extinction - National - www.theage.com.au:
"In Australia, ahead of the book's release here today, Professor Sykes said men would last for only another 5000 generations before dwindling fertility and a decrepit Y chromosome consigned them to the history books along with Neanderthals and trilobites.
Women, on the other hand, could look forward to plum jobs, good pay, tax-deductible child care, subsidised tampons, clean bathrooms and global peace.
'This . . . is a look into the future at how the Y chromosome will deteriorate, and I think it certainly will,' Professor Sykes said. 'The timescale is debatable but I think it is inevitable.
'I predict that the Y chromosome will be so damaged by that time that males will only be 1 per cent as fertile as they are now.'
The Y chromosome, which carries the genetic switch to turn babies into boys at six weeks of gestation, is doomed, he argues in his book. 'The Y chromosome is a genetic ruin, littered with molecular wreckage . . . a graveyard of rotting genes. It is a dying chromosome and one day it will become extinct.'
He said men could be rescued with 'massive intervention', but it would be quite possible to survive without them."
"In Australia, ahead of the book's release here today, Professor Sykes said men would last for only another 5000 generations before dwindling fertility and a decrepit Y chromosome consigned them to the history books along with Neanderthals and trilobites.
Women, on the other hand, could look forward to plum jobs, good pay, tax-deductible child care, subsidised tampons, clean bathrooms and global peace.
'This . . . is a look into the future at how the Y chromosome will deteriorate, and I think it certainly will,' Professor Sykes said. 'The timescale is debatable but I think it is inevitable.
'I predict that the Y chromosome will be so damaged by that time that males will only be 1 per cent as fertile as they are now.'
The Y chromosome, which carries the genetic switch to turn babies into boys at six weeks of gestation, is doomed, he argues in his book. 'The Y chromosome is a genetic ruin, littered with molecular wreckage . . . a graveyard of rotting genes. It is a dying chromosome and one day it will become extinct.'
He said men could be rescued with 'massive intervention', but it would be quite possible to survive without them."
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