American scientists, together with the staff of Oxford University, came to the conclusion that mothers who experience stress at home, at work or in their personal lives are more likely to have girls. Thus, a new study has shown that if a woman is under pressure when trying to have a child even, for example, because of the difficult economic situation in the country, then she is more likely to have a daughter than a son
Why does the sex of newborn crocodiles depend on the temperature in the nest? Why do male poplar plants turn into female ones after heavy pruning? Why do men, whose work is associated with long expeditions, have mainly daughters? The factors influencing the sex of the offspring are analyzed by V. Iskrin, the author of the book "Dialectics of Sexes".
In the mid-60s, two brilliant articles were published, literally overturning the then prevailing ideas about the objective purpose of the dioecious type of reproduction. Their author, V. Geodakyan, argued that sex is not so much a means of reproduction as an effective tool for evolution. Based on the fundamental difference between the sexes - the male sex is much more differentiated in terms of traits than the female - the researcher came to the conclusion that males are an experimental, search component of the system that corrects the historical movement of the species, while females perform a stabilizing function aimed at preserving genetic wealth.
This view of the evolutionary role of the sexes made it possible, in particular, to explain the vanguard mission of males in the development of a new one and the rearguard role of females. It became clear why males are more vulnerable than females, and why males, on average, live less than females.
Let us recall the phenomenon of the war years, consisting in the increase during and after the war in the proportion of boys among newborns. Further, one cannot but name a group of phenomena associated with the age of parents: the older they are, the less likely they are to have a son. The most significant deviations from the norm are the phenomena of unhealthy fathers. From fathers suffering from diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular and other diseases, up to 120-130 boys are born per 100 girls.
The record (of the registered) phenomenon from this series, most likely, belongs to Great Britain, where after the accident at the Sellafield nuclear center (1957) 143 girls and 202 boys were born from irradiated fathers over the next thirty years. Thus, the secondary sex ratio in this case jumped to 141!
Under normal, normal conditions, about 105 boys are born per 100 girls. Even more boys are conceived. According to various estimates, there are between 130 and 180 male conceptions per 100 female conceptions. Most other species also produce “males” with some margin. The question arises: why does such a disproportion exist in nature? What is the male stock for?
Have you noticed, reader, that the male gender is more scattered than the female? Among men there are more outstanding artists, composers, chefs, fashion designers, hairdressers. However, the opposite, male, flank is no less solid. Women will not be able to "boast" with so many extraordinary asocial personalities, alcoholics, loafers, filthy, inept.
Promotional video:
Thus, for some reason, nature endows men with the most diverse traits (signs). Absolutizing the masculine essence, we have every right to say that a man is a bearer of a specific trait, attribute, of this or that quality. Does this have any objective meaning? Maybe on males (males) the species is testing, rolling in its innovations? And do men act as experimental, empirical material?
This is probably true. Evolution is carried out blindly. What signs will be useful in the future, nobody knows. That is why - because of the spontaneity of the process - and there is an objective need for a stock of the most diverse features. Signs, in other words, are stocked up in case. The time will come, and the traits (signs) that meet the trends of changes in the environment will go into action. Traits that in one way or another do not meet the requirements of the environment will be rejected. And since the bearer of the trait is a man, together with the unsatisfactory innovation (trait), sadly, he will be eliminated too. As is known, male mortality in all age groups is higher than that of women.
Why is nature experimenting on males and not females, you ask? It is not difficult to answer this question. Experiential activity is always associated with losses. Females are the most valuable, basic "equipment". Their loss is costly. She threatens with the extinction of the species.
In order for the correction engine (male sex) to give a more powerful impulse at a sharp turn, it is necessary to produce and spend a larger amount of consumable experimental material (males). Which, as we can see, is actually happening.
With the improvement of living conditions, on the contrary, the rotation of men weakens: male mortality decreases and the proportion of boys among newborns decreases. This phenomenon has been observed in recent decades in some European countries, Canada, and the USA. Belonging to the "golden billion" dominating the world shifts the sex ratio by a few tenths of a percent towards girls. Girls signal well-being, boys signal adversity.
Blocking girls-to-be is nature's greatest invention. So, even before conception, the female sex is selected, consolidated, trimmed. The male sex, on the contrary, bypassing the blockage, enters into life scattered, variegated. This is exactly what is needed for the correction function. In life in a future that is not programmed, a variety of traits can come in handy.
In 1958, an article by V. Kamalyan appeared, in which the researcher reported on the ratio of boys and girls in families of men working in high mountain conditions: at astrophysical stations, in geological and other expeditions. From these men, only 36 boys were born per 100 girls. Kamalyan suggested that this high-mountainous anomaly is associated with oxygen starvation, lack of mineral salts in drinking water, increased radiation and low pressure. He especially pointed out the contrast between the place of permanent residence and the highlands.
As a true researcher, Kamalyan decided to test his hypothesis and took male rabbits to the mountains. However, this ratio was also carried out on rabbits, which means that the matter is not in height. Then what? What brings together "rabbits-climbers" and astrophysicists? Abstinence, of course. Both those and others languished for a long time without females.
Living conditions are not only comfortable, normal and unfavorable, but also catastrophic. This is where the key to the "high-mountain" phenomenon lies. Isn't the absence or acute shortage of females a disaster for the species? When registering a catastrophic situation, the male must take appropriate extraordinary measures.
It is clear that all this is “done” at the reflex psychobiochemical level.
Disasters are different. It turns out that this banal truth opens up the broadest research prospects for us. In fact, what else besides the absence of females can threaten the existence of the species? Let's move from the animal kingdom to the vegetable kingdom.
Dissolved species are also present in the plant kingdom. These are poplar, aspen, sea buckthorn, cycad and many other plants. Some of them are able to change sex.
A plant perceives a light pruning as an unfavorable factor, a radical one as a disaster. In an unfavorable situation, spotters are needed - "men", in a catastrophic situation - the basis of life, "women".
The male poplar plants turned into stumps by their reaction, in principle, are no different from astrophysicists isolated from their wives. The difference between them lies only in the fact that men (males) who experience prolonged abstinence shift the sex ratio of the next generation to the female side, and crippled trees - their own, real, present.
Gardeners who grow cucumbers know that normally male flowers appear on a young plant and then female flowers. There is little use for men, we want cucumbers. What are we doing? We pinch the main shoot and … bring closer and increase the yield. Pinching the main branch stimulates the development of female flowers. It lies on the surface.
Undoubtedly, the plant perceives this brutal procedure under the article "catastrophe" (the top or the so-called apex plays a special role in the life of the plant). In full accordance with the theory, the plant feminizes, and the sex ratio between flowers shifts to the female side.
Extreme thermal pressure can also act as a catastrophic factor. I will illustrate the "temperature catastrophe" with an example from the life of a species practicing sex selection at the embryonic stage.
Experiments conducted by American scientists have shown that the temperature at which the eggs of the Mississippi alligator develop determines the sex of the future offspring. At temperatures above 34 ° C, males hatch from eggs, below 30 ° C, females, and at intermediate temperatures, both.
In conclusion, about a phenomenon that, at first glance, has nothing to do with gender issues. It will be about fluctuations in rowan yield. It is believed that the abundant rowan harvest (this applies, albeit to a lesser extent, to nuts, acorns, apples) portends a harsh winter. Indeed, after a fruitful autumn, in most cases, a cold and snowy winter comes. Why? Science has not yet answered this question. Well, now we will try to answer it.
Of course, rowan is not a meteorologist. She doesn't predict the future. But it "takes into account" the past. So, if the past, especially the previous wintering, when the next generation (flower buds) is laid, was normal in all respects, the harvest will be ordinary, average, ordinary.
If the previous wintering was unfavorable (for example, mild thaws were replaced by frosts a couple of times), in theory, more “boys” should be “born”. We know that increasing the sex ratio is a response to unfavorable conditions. But since mountain ash is an inseparable plant and the "boys" in its fruits are soldered with "girls", an increase in the number of "boys" (expansion of the spectrum of qualities) should be expressed in an increase in offspring (fruits, seeds). This is exactly what we observe in the fall after the previous adversity, I repeat once again, first of all, after a bad winter.
If the winter was not just bad, but very bad, catastrophic (prolonged strong thaws with complete melting of snow were repeatedly replaced by bitter frosts), the species should devote all its strength to the production of "girls" (quantities). And since, I beg your pardon for repeating myself, in rowan the “boys” and “girls” are connected to each other, the reaction should again be a plentiful, perhaps even super-abundant harvest.
Let's make a conclusion. The catastrophic pressure of the environment and the threat to existence have as their consequence and reaction a feminization of the species that is realized in one form or another. By the way, in human society, the altruistic modification of this principle applies to all people, no matter whether they are astrophysicists, engineers, builders or farmers. This principle is even imprinted on public morality. Its expression is the following formula: in case of danger, women and children should be rescued first. There is no need to explain that men are meant here as rescuers who are ready to sacrifice themselves.