Archives: Sex

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Does biology explain the sex ratio in tech?

Here’s what bugs me about James Damore’s recent anti-Google screed: it’s a terrible misuse of biology. The question he addresses is: Why are there so few women in tech and tech leadership? In his memo to Google, Damore offered an explanation (note: I added the numbers): On average, men and women biologically differ in many... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Pitting science against media

Photo by Dick Daniels from Wikimedia Commons. Odds are that the Laysan albatrosses in the photo above are a male and his female mate, but it’s worth checking their sex chromosomes to be sure. The reason? In this long-lived species, most of the adults are females, and two females often pair up to raise chicks... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

A royal waste?

Giant pandas are in the news again, this time for their annual date night at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington DC. But hardly a day goes by without a report somewhere on the latest captive panda birth, strategic breeding attempt or panda relocation. A blogger at the London Review of Books compared the bears to members of the... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Not when cupid strikes

“Not when cupid strikes.” That was Christine Drea’s response at the Animal Behavior meeting last summer. She had just given a talk on her latest study, showing the dramatic effects of hormonal contraception on the way lemurs communicate with the opposite sex1. I was asking her what advice she gives to women about birth control. On... More

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