AP Photo

Men who make it to adulthood without succumbing to the male habit of dying in accidents shouldn't congratulate themselves too soon: their life expectancy still doesn't match a woman's. In industrialized countries, women at every age out-survive men. And it's not just humans. Males that die before females have been observed throughout the animal kingdom. It's even true of the lowly fruit fly, and it looks like harmful mutations in mothers' genes are to blame.