Boy or girl? It’s in the father’s genes

 

生男生女，父親基因決定

【摘要2021.7.26. 自由】◎ 陳成良

A Newcastle University study involving thousands of families is helping prospective parents work out whether they are likely to have sons or daughters.

（英國）新堡大學一項涉及數千個家庭的研究，正在幫助準父母確定他們是否有可能生兒子或女兒。

The work by Corry Gellatly, a research scientist at the university, has shown that men inherit a tendency to have more sons or more daughters from their parents. This means that a man with many brothers is more likely to have sons, while a man with many sisters is more likely to have daughters.

該大學科研人員科里．格拉特利的研究表明，男性生更多兒子或更多女的傾向，遺傳自父母。這就意味著，兄弟多的男性更可能生兒子，而姊妹多的男性則更可能生女兒。

The research involved a study of 927 family trees containing information on 556,387 people from North America and Europe going back to 1600.

該研究涉及對927個家譜的研究，包含北美和歐洲自1600年以來共55萬6387人的資訊。

"The family tree study showed that whether you’re likely to have a boy or a girl is inherited. We now know that men are more likely to have sons if they have more brothers but are more likely to have daughters if they have more sisters. However, in women, you just can’t predict it," Mr Gellatly explains

「這項家譜研究表明，生男生女的傾向是遺傳而來的。我們現在明白了，然而，在女性身上卻無法預測這一點」，格拉特利先生解釋道。

新聞辭典

prospective：形容詞，預期的、未來的。例句：She is his prospective mother-in-law.（她是他未來的岳母。）

inherit：動詞，繼承。例句：He inherited an immense fortune.（他繼承一份龐大的財產。）

tendency：名詞，（思想、行為等的）傾向。例句：His tendency to exaggerate is well known.（他喜歡誇張是出了名的。）