Fewer Guys Born

Earlier today we learned that men used to fight over women because the gals were so few. Well, in the future, women may get into girl-fights over men. In various countries around the world, the number of baby boys versus girls is declining. Now, there are still more guys than girls being born in most places, but in the U.S. alone, an estimated 135,000 fewer boys were born between 1970 and 2002. Scientists aren’t really sure what’s causing this, though there are many hypotheses — pollution, diet, alcohol consumption, stress, etc. One thing that’s quite fascinating about raising kids is that male babies require more energy to raise and also are less hardy than girls and tend to die more easily. Another researcher found that the number of boys born in NYC relative to the number of girls fell significantly after September 11. [Sydney Morning Herald]