It's not a fad. A significant exception to the general trend of increasing female participation in politics is eastern Europe, where under communism women made up 20 to 35 percent of the lower houses. But the coming of democracy brought a male backlash. Women's participation in legislatures has fallen by half or more in Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and the former Czechoslovakia. Despite their macho swagger, males are the more fragile sex of the human species.
Male fetuses are less likely than females to come to term.
In the first half of this century, improvements in prenatal care reduced the number of miscarriages and stillbirths and hence increased the proportion of baby boys in most industrial countries. No. 1 in annual review. The universe is not only expanding, but that expansion appears to be speeding up. Now, in the deadly arms race between people and bacteria, the bugs are winning. A look at the trend of increasing bacterial resistance to antibiotics, and its potential impact.