Epigenetics of Royalty

Imagine—you’ve just been born, and your future looks bleak. After an all-too brief infancy when you’ll be cared for and fed, you’ll be forced into child labour, cleaning a dark and crowded home and caring for your many siblings. You’ll be subsequently put on guard duty to defend your home against vicious intruders. If you survive, you’ll spend the rest of your days searching for tiny bits of food from ephemeral sources, mostly not for yourself, but for the communal pantry. Weekends? Holidays? Forget it. Within a few weeks, you’ll have worked yourself to death. Moreover, you will never have known love. Your sister, on the other hand, will begin her career by first murdering her competitors, then sleeping around in grand style. During a string of orgies with thousands of participants, she will fornicate with up to 20 males, who are (literally!) ready to die for the privilege. Upon her return home from such debauchery, she will be treated royally; indeed, for the rest of her life she will be surrounded by loyal staff who will feed, clean her, and cater to her every need. If she should ever have to leave home (which happens rarely) she will be accompanied by thousands of subordinates who will do their best to find a suitable new home. Your sister will live 20 times longer than you and will one day be the proud mother of hundreds of thousands of offspring, while you’ll have died a spinster. Unfair? You bet! But then you’re just a worker honeybee. As for your sister, it’s good to be queen.