You think very hard about getting a tattoo simply because a mate-of-a-mate is a trainee and he reckons he can do you one for £30 all-in.
The pea aphid, with its XX/XO sex determination, presents a different scenario: the effective population sizes of the X chromosome and autosomes are equivalent because a mating female and male each contribute an X chromosome to the next generation (Jaquiery et al. 2012) and thus there is no a priori expectation of lower X diversity.
"If you're a chubby little loser, you're all alone, at the bottom of the pile," Mark says at the beginning, and the plaintive note is struck time and again, to the point of embarrassment; even when his lot improves, Anna still spurns him as a mate, because he would be likely to sire porky little Marks with snub noses.
We fall into these bad habits because our search for a mate grows so complicated that we will do almost anything to make it easier.
Jess, 14, was there parentless and with a mate, because she recognised that Britain's future in or out of the EU was also her future.
I believe him not because he's a mate but because I watched the trial.
That makes me so proud because Rustie is a mate and a fellow Glaswegian.
Accused by one of backing Kevin Rudd because he was a mate from Queensland, Chris says: "The book makes it crystal clear I did no such thing at all".
But it is also possible that happy people are more likely to get married because they have an easier time finding a mate or because they are more willing to believe a relationship could last for a half-century.
All of which is a shame, and not only because I am myself a mate of Sudjic, who once filled this column.
Often we seek a mate because we do not feel whole.
