杏吧原创

THIS year鈥檚 winner of the Darwin Award for 鈥渙utstanding contributions to
natural selection through self-sacrifice鈥� certainly earned it. One鈥檚 only
quibble might be that Larry Walters actually survived his ascent to 3000 metres
in a garden chair strapped to 45 weather balloons.

But perhaps that scarcely matters. For if there is anything in the idea that
we inherit our brains mostly from our mothers (see p 34), men like Walters could
redeem their input to the next generation by mating with smart women.

The evidence comes from experiments with mice. Nobody has the slightest idea
how鈥攐r if鈥攊t might apply to humans. But let鈥檚 suspend our disbelief
for a moment and speculate on who else might benefit.

Errant footballing wizard Paul Gascoigne is a prime candidate. The cool but
fierce intellect of someone like Camille Paglia might be needed to rescue his
Darwinian contribution.

Dan Quayle鈥檚 genes, on the other hand, are screaming out for a Gillian
Anderson figure鈥攁lways assuming that Agent Scully spells as well as she
dissects. And as for Mark Thatcher, look no further than crack foreign
correspondents Christiane Amanpour of CNN or Kate Adie of the BBC, neither of
whom could get lost in a desert if they tried.

Of course, if the theory is right, Thatcher should have inherited his
cortical powers from his famously iron-willed mother. But perhaps the less said
about that the better.