Right, now for less depressing stuff

[kateorman]

Battle of the sexes - one gene keeps us either male or female, scientists find

DNA's guardian gene found in placozoans. The common genetic heritage of life on Earth ever fills me with glee. We share genes with yeast, starfish, you name it - the same basic toolkit, recycled and remodelled over and over again.

Homosexual selection: The power of

Comments

[antikythera]

In that first one: "The remarkable findings refute the generally held view that sex is determined at birth and is irreversible in later life."

Who thinks sex is determined at birth? I hope they meant conception.

[kateorman]

"By birth" might also make a little more sense. But I think their meaning's pretty clear. (This whole thing mind-blowingly contradicts the idea that evolution and development can only tinker with the embryo. Wibble.)

[antikythera]

Wibble!

I mean, we already knew that certain reptiles and amphibians' sex could be determined just by the incubation temperature of eggs.

[pbristow]

If you mean "by the time that birth occurs", yes. But "by birth" could also be read as "by the process of birth", which is deinitely wrong!

Languages, eh? Can't live with 'em; can't just go "flurgle wurgle blurgle" and get away with it... =:o\

[hnpcc]

The common genetic heritage of life on Earth ever fills me with glee. We share genes with yeast, starfish, you name it - the same basic toolkit, recycled and remodelled over and over again.

Yup. I find it awesome (both senses) that you can search for a gene using a fragment of conserved codon sequence and frequently find it in all sorts of places.