A New Understanding of Why Females Outlive Males

It is commonly known that women tend to outlive men, but do we know why? This is the question that Patricia Wright of Stony Brook University set out to find the answer to. In 1986, Wright and her team ventured out to Madagascar to study a whopping 70 individual Milne-Edwards' sifaka lemurs inhabiting Ranomafana National Park. The team recorded births, deaths, and behavior of the lemurs. These lemurs are especially unique in that both sexes are essentially the same in terms of habits and patterns. With the Milne-Edwards' sifaka, both males and females have the same amount of testosterone and grow to be the same height and weight. Both sexes are equally likely to pick a fight, and are equally aggressive. Their coloring- orange eyes and dark brown fur- is the same. And, above all, both sexes routinely leave their original group and venture out on their own. However, despite all these similarities, males on average only live until their late teens, while females live until their early thirties.
So, what's going on? Why do males meet their ends dramatically sooner than females? Wright and her team analyzed their data, searching and searching for the answer. Finally, they noticed an odd pattern in the dispersal data. Their data says that males and females venture out equally frequently and go just as far, but there was one major difference that could be the answer to it all. While females stopped dispersing after reaching age 11, males dispersed their entire lives. Due to this risky behavior, males often die earlier than females. "'When you're a social animal and you go off on your own into unfamiliar territory, finding food can be more of a challenge. Plus you don't have the extra protection of other group members who can help look out for predators. Even when you find a new group to join, you may have to fight your way in and there's a chance of getting injured in a fight,' said co-author Jennifer Verdolin of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, North Carolina."

Of course, this doesnt explain this phenomenon in humans. However, it might just give a clue. In humans, risk-taking behavior is typically done at different ages, as with the Milne-Edwards' sifaka. This "reveals age-specific mortality risk factors" that have not been considered as of yet.
I think this article is exteremely interesting. As a female, I've always noticed that males are much more prone to risk-taking behaviors, such as dirtbiking and crazy stunts. That's not to say that all females stay away from behavior like that, but there is no denying that males participate much more often, even into their adulthood. Many injuries can occur, often leading to an untimely death, thus the average early male deaths compared to women.

Genes Affected by Sleep Loss

 We all know that sleep-loss causes a plethora of different problems, from mere tiredness to driving accidents. But, could a sleepless night also affect our genes? Scientists are now saying yes, it can.
In a study of 26 people that suffer from insomnia, Derk-Jan Dijk and colleagues at the University of Surrey in England set out to understand the affects of sleep-loss on a molecular level.
For one week, the 26 volunteers were allowed 8 hours of sleep each night. They noted that they felt good and rested. The next week, the volunteers were given just 6 hours of sleep a night, noting that they felt "sleepy and sluggish", as to be expected. However, here's the kicker: as the volunteers got less sleep, their genes actually changed. Each volunteer was given a blood test, and, according to reasearchers, the activity in 711 of their genes had changed. Among these affected genes were those that control the immune system, which helps to prevent sickness and colds. As always, scientists have concluded that sleep-loss can lead to health problems and are recommending at least 8 hours of sleep per night.
This study, though, had one big fault. There are 7 billion human beings on Earth, and only 26 of them were monitored. For a more definitive conclusion, researchers would have done better in using a larger test pool.

However, I guess for this particular experiment the small group was not too damaging on the results because the conclusion that sleep-loss leads to health problems is one that everybody already knows.
Well, what about people that cannot get 8 solid hours of sleep each night? Life can get pretty hectic, and it gets even more so as we get older (to a certain point, eventually we just retire and can sleep as much as we want to). As a high school student in my senior year, I know firsthand how it is sometimes literally impossible to get 8 hours of sleep, and most of the time even 5 hours! Between school, homework, sports, clubs, jobs, and other engagements, hitting the sack at a decent hour is next to impossible. It is almost hypocritical, how everybody says to get 8 hours of sleep, yet we have to wake up at 6 for school and have loads of homework each night, and are expected to have jobs to start contributing to society. Where will it end? Are we all in for major health problems by the time we can retire? It is all just something to think about. I sure as heck know that I want my genes to be in tip-top shape, but apparently that wont happen for a long, long time.