Most east asians also have a special form of a gene known as abcc11 , which makes the cells of the ear produce dry earwax . Most africans and europeans , on the other hand , possess the ancestral form of the gene , which makes wet earwax .
It is hard to see why dry earwax would confer a big survival advantage , so the asian version of the gene may have been selected for some other property , like making people sweat less , says a team led by koh-ichiro yoshiura of nagasaki university .