Sunday, November 28, 2004

Infidels

No, not infidels as in those that refuse to acknowledge the great power of Allah. I'm talking about sexual infidelity. It appears that female infidelity may be heritable according to a recent twin study.

Which brings me to twin studies . . . ok I don't know much about twin studies, other than what I picked up in a few undergrad psych classes, but they seem pretty cool. I thought that SNP mapping had become all the rage, but it appears that scientists are still looking at pedigrees (to some extent) to determine if certain traits are heritable.

Of course, in order to map the "promiscuity gene(s)", these guys are gonna have to resort to a QTL study. I can't wait for the day when you can genotype your fiance to determine if she's gonna sleep with the milkman (or mailman). No, sorry honey, I can't marry you 'cause your DNA suggests that you won't stay faithful to me. I hope this makes it into an episode of Desperate Housewives next season -- it would be like a daytime soap opera meets an episode of CSI: Suburbs.

The researchers also determined that sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome are heritable, which means it may also be possible to determine if a potential mate will keep you up all night by snoring or kicking you!

1 Comments:

At 5:11 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

We of the RLS really don't kick you when you're in bed with us. Our legs twitch in such a way that, if you're holding your hand right above the skin, you'll feel vibrations. Also, except for prenatal RLS, the partner you're considering marrying probably already has it, no need for genetic disposition.

Oh, and excellent about infidelity. Now they just need to track down the gene for whether or not she/he'll lie about it.

 

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