Double X Science - It's In Your Genes

Search Results for: label/sex chromosome

  • Literal XX Xplainer: How we can live with two X chromosomes

    …ression of one X chromosome in each cell makes each woman a lovely mosaic of genetic expression (although not true genetic mosaicism), varying from cell to cell in whether we use genes from X chromosome 1 or from X chromosome 2. Because these gene forms can differ between the two X chromosomes, we are simply less uniform in what our X chromosome genes do than are men. An exception is men who are XXY, who also shut down one of those X chromosomes…

    Authored by on June 27, 2012

  • SCOTUS justices can’t find science on same-sex marriage

    …8217;s there. First, some numbers. According to the AAP statement, same-sex couples in the U.S. are raising a total of 115,000 children; if you roll in households with a single gay or lesbian parent, this country has at least 2 million children being raised by non-heterosexual parents. Two million children. And that doesn’t even count children being raised by parents in an outwardly heternormative relationship but whose gender identities an…

    Authored by on March 27, 2013

  • Dating research update

    …erences cited within) romantic love at least once in our lives, and can attest to multiple stages with different feelings involved. In order to measure two distinct but not mutually exclusive states, the authors propose a new 20-item Infatuation and Attachment Scales questionnaire. Dutch and Welsh study participants were asked to rate their levels of agreement on a 7-point Likert scale to questions serving as proxies for each state. For example,…

    Authored by on January 31, 2013

  • Pregnancy 101: Fertilization is another way to come together during sex

    Human ovum (egg). The zona pellucida is a thick clear girdle surrounded by the cells of the corona radiata (radiant crown). Via Wikimedia Commons. It was September of 2006. Due to certain events taking place on a certain evening after a certain bottle (or two) of wine, my body was transformed into a human incubator. While I will not describe the events leading up to that very moment, I will dissect the way in which we propagate our…

    Authored by on December 3, 2011

  • Plan B now available to younger teens

    The age group that needs it most. by Emily Willingham      In December of 2011, Kathleen Sebelius, the Obama Administration’s Health and Human Services secretary, shocked the reproductive health community by blocking a bid to make Plan B, or “morning after” contraception, available over the counter (OTC) to teens under age 17. The much-anticipated OTC availability of this intervention to this age group had already received FDA…

    Authored by on April 5, 2013

  • Are your children always on your mind? They may be IN your mind

    …7;s a post for another time). As you probably know, most women don’t carry a Y chromosome in their own cells (but some do; another post for another time). In this study, researchers examined postmortem brain tissue from 26 women who had no detectable neurological disease and 33 women who’d had Alzheimer’s disease; the women’s ages at death ranged from 32 to 101. They found that almost two thirds (37) of all of the women te…

    Authored by on September 26, 2012

  • Finally, Science for Grownups

    by Biology Editor, Jeanne Garbarino Wild. Sex. For some, those two words might conjure up a steamy scene set in the boudoir, or if you take what you can get, perhaps the back seat of a car. But for Dr. Carin Bondar, Biologist with a Twist, “wild sex” takes on a literal translation. In her new series, aptly named Wild Sex, which debuted in the US on November 21st on Earth Touch TV, Dr. Bondar tackles topics of taboo in the animal king…

    Authored by on November 28, 2012

  • Biology Explainer: The big 4 building blocks of life–carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and nucleic acids

    …molecules themselves break down into a surprisingly small number of building blocks. The proteins that make up all of the living things on this planet and ensure their appropriate structure and smooth function consist of only 20 different kinds of building blocks. Nucleic acids, specifically DNA, are even more basic: only four different kinds of molecules provide the materials to build the countless different genetic codes that translate into all…

    Authored by on June 8, 2012

  • To Cut or Not to Cut…Cirumcision Decision

    …sex. The risks of circumcision are most commonly bleeding, infection or the wrong amount of tissue snipped off, and this happens in about 1 of every 500 newborn boys (0.2 percent). Other studies found the rates higher, up to 2 to 3 percent, but these complications were still just minor bleeding. They even offered a comparison of a similar surgery as the one I discussed above: complications involving severe bleeding from tonsillectomies occur abo…

    Authored by on September 14, 2012

  • Friday Roundup: Sex, math, sugar bombs, and vocal fry

    Via Wikimedia Commons. This is a picture of a whole lot of sugar. Women and men and science Vocal fry: I (Emily) am a biologist. This phrase makes me think of tiny, loudmouthed fish. But it’s really about a vocal tic. Do you do this when you speak? It’s all the rage among young XXers these days. Decaying hoods, premature birth: living in among dilapidated buildings linked to higher risk of premature childbirth.  Do you know w…

    Authored by on December 16, 2011

Page 1 of 612345...Last »