Scientists Find Gene That Controls Type of Earwax in People - New York Times

Did you know that East Asians often have have dry, flaky ear wax while Caucasians and Africans mostly have wet ear wax? Scientists have found a gene that determines the type of ear wax a person will have. They think that the gene determined not just ear wax, but sweating as well.

“They write that earwax type and armpit odor are correlated, since populations with dry earwax, such as those of East Asia, tend to sweat less and have little or no body odor, while the wet earwax populations of Africa and Europe sweat more and so may have more body odor. Several Asian features, like small nostrils, are conjectured to be adaptations to the cold. Less sweating, the Japanese authors suggest, may be another adaptation to the cold in which the ancestors of East Asian peoples are thought to have lived.”