Why Males Are Biology's Riskier Sex
New data have confirmed major differences in mutation rates between the sexes — showing that children inherit more mutations from their dads than from their moms, says guest commentator Robert Martin.
Robert D. Martin is emeritus curator of biological anthropology at the Field Museum in Chicago, a member of the Committee on Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago, and academic guest at the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zürich. His most recent book is How We Do It: The Evolution and Future of Human Reproduction.
This may be surprising to some: A woman's age is not alone in affecting pregnancy and birth, despite the impression often given.
Reviewing Paul Raeburn's book Do Fathers Matter?, Tabitha Powledge wrote:
"Everybody knows that older mothers run higher risks of a baby with birth defects — Down syndrome being the most common and best-known. By comparison, hardly anybody
