Gentlemen are on the brink of extinction

Scientists discovered that men would become extinct in about ten million years

Geneticists made yet another great discovery. Of course it is again all about humans' extinction. Nobody will ever give up this topic, although this time those who are on the brink of extinction can have a sigh of relief. Scientists discovered that men would become extinct in about ten million years, give or take 100 thousand. However, geneticists are not sure about their predictions. Scientists from the University of Canberra in Australia, for instance, say that this can happen much earlier as well as much later.

The reason for the stronger sex's extinction and the total women's monopoly on life is the defective Y chromosome. Whatever you call it – underdeveloped, retarded – it does not matter for the experts. Scientists have become interested in this chromosome long time ago. Y chromosome, which does not exist in women, have always been a mystery, a subject of debate and made some of the nervous readers of popular scientific literature tremble. 

One of the popular yet horrible theories says that Y chromosome is a result of mutation, in which X chromosome lost some thousands of genes. The newborn mutant combined with the full chromosome and formed XY pair. Y form proved quite stable and existed for millions of years. However, the leakage of genetic information turned out to be inevitable.

David Page from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge thinks that Y chromosome served its purpose very well. It has lost not more than several hundred genes through its long history, taking into consideration that it is already 300 million years old. 

It is interesting to note that the mutant is almost three times smaller than X chromosome.

Page does not think that Y chromosome became worthless and men are endangered species from this moment on. On the contrary, the results of his research give hope for the best. Chimpanzee's Y chromosome lost five genes during last six million years, while that of human did not lose any. Y chromosome turned out to be more stable than scientists expected. Fears can be postponed for a couple of millenniums until there will be a shortage of true gentlemen.

Natalya Bordyugovskaya

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Author`s name Olga Savka
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