• Question: Why are some people shorter than others?

    Asked by beth.nicholls to Angela, Claire, Ian, Robert, Sarah on 12 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Angela Stokes

      Angela Stokes answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      Hi again _bethnicholls_
      Stature is all to do with the genes you inherit from your parents and the environment you grow up in (were you ill as a child, did you get proper nutrition).
      Individual races of people also show differences. In warm climates people tend to be smaller because they have to have fast efficient metabolisms, in cold climates people are larger to keep warm. As races intermix we tend to get a mixed up gene pool and so therefore there is variability in height.

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