Archive for the ‘Male Genetics’ Category

You might be familiar with a womens clinic that provides care and treatment specifically for womens health concerns such as pregnancy, menstrual concerns. Infertility issues and chronic disorders that involve womens reproductive health. Just like women, men also have their own medical issues and it is universal fact men and women have different medical issues concerning their reproductive health and related problems.

A typical mens clinic such as DBClinic in Singapore focuses on mens health especially on topics or health issues that most men arent comfortable to talk about. These include sexual health issues like testicular and penile concerns, fertility issues, screening and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV infection, prostate problems and even disorders like hair loss in men.

If you and your partner have been trying to conceive but to no avail, then it is recommended that you (and your partner) undergo fertility screening to determine what causes infertility. A proper diagnosis from fertility screening will enable your doctor to devise an appropriate treatment and management plan to help you and your partner. Fertility screening is also useful for people who plan to conceive or get married to determine whether they are able to make children.

It cannot be denied that there is a stigma concerning STDs and HIV not only in Singapore but worldwide. This is why people who are affected by these infections are not very open to seeking treatment and proper diagnosis because of the fear of being exposed. A mens clinic in Singapore is a safe haven for people with STDs and HIV because they are treated with the utmost care and confidentiality.

Prostate cancer is one of the top cancers affecting men in Singapore and usually affects men at an older age (usually beyond 50). It can be manifested by urination problems, blood in urine and semen, pain during ejaculation and erection problems. Early detection of prostate cancer gives you a chance for seeking treatments as early as possible. Another type of prostate problem is called benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and characterized by an enlarged prostate. Hough this condition isnt cancerous, it can bring lots of negative effective effects to ones quality of life.

Medically called Androgenic Alopecia is a common occurrence in men. It can even occur in men in their early 20s and it is a condition that is influenced by genetics. Meaning, it can run in the genes. While male pattern hair loss is not a serious medical concern, it can be a serious cosmetic concern for men. Thinning hair can make you look older than you actually are and in severe cases, it can cause total baldness.

DB Clinic for Mens Health

DB Clinic is a mens health clinic in Singapore that provides expert and personalized treatments and guidance to men who are experiencing sensitive and personal medical issues. Men in general, arent really open to sharing very personal concerns because it is just part of their nature. And when dealing with personal health issues, it is good to have someone you can trust. Someone who can help you have effective treatments. The doctors at DB Clinic are trained to deal with mens health. They are experts in creating an environment where patients can freely and comfortably share their issues which ultimately, builds trust.

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Services and Treatments That You Can Receive at a Mens Clinic in Singapore - Chiang Rai Times

Dwarf woolly mammoths that lived on Siberia's Wrangel Island until about 4,000 years ago were plagued by genetic problems, carrying DNA that increased their risk of diabetes, developmental defects and low sperm count, a new study finds.

These mammoths couldn't even smell flowers, the researchers reported.

"I have never been to Wrangel Island, but I am told by people who have that in the springtime, it's just basically covered in flowers," study lead researcher Vincent Lynch, an assistant professor of biological sciences at the University at Buffalo in New York, told Live Science. "[The mammoths] probably couldn't smell any of that."

Related: Mammoth resurrection: 11 hurdles to bringing back an ice age beast

Wrangel Island is a peculiarity. The vast majority of woolly mammoths died out at the end of the last ice age, about 10,500 years ago. But because of rising sea levels, a population of woolly mammoths became trapped on Wrangel Island and continued living there until their demise about 3,700 years ago. This population was so isolated and so small that it didn't have much genetic diversity, the researchers wrote in the new study.

Without genetic diversity, harmful genetic mutations likely accumulated as these woolly mammoths inbred, and this "may have contributed to their extinction," the researchers wrote in the study.

The team made the discovery by comparing the DNA of one Wrangel Island mammoth to that of three Asian elephants and two other woolly mammoths that lived in larger populations on the mainland.

"We were lucky in that someone had already sequenced the [Wrangel mammoth's] genome," Lynch said. "So, we just went to a database and downloaded it."

After comparing the mammoths' and elephants' genomes, the researchers found several genetic mutations that were unique to the Wrangel Island population. The team had a company synthesize these tweaked genes; then, the researchers popped those genes into elephant cells in petri dishes. These experiments allowed the researchers to analyze whether the proteins expressed by the Wrangel Island mammoth's genes carried out their duties correctly, by sending the right signals, for instance, in the elephant cells.

The team tested genes involved in neurological development, male fertility, insulin signaling and sense of smell. In a nutshell, the Wrangel Island mammoths were not very healthy, the researchers found, as none of those genes carried out their tasks correctly.

That said, the study looked at only one Wrangel Island mammoth, so it's possible that this individual's comrades didn't have similar genes. But "it's probably unlikely that it was just this one individual that had these defects," Lynch said.

In fact, the case of the Wrangel Island mammoths is a cautionary tale about what can happen to a population that is too small and therefore lacks genetic diversity, he said.

The findings build on those from a study published in 2017 in the journal PLOS Genetics that found that the Wrangel Island mammoth population was accumulating damaging mutations.

The new study was published online Feb. 7 in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution.

Originally published on Live Science.

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The last woolly mammoths on Earth had disastrous DNA - Livescience.com

Their nine lives may be running out but if a major project works, Scottish wildcats could eventually roam the nation once again, finds Sandra Dick

Somewhere between the polar bear, the Bactrian camel and the Japanese macaque, Felis silvestris, among the rarest of them all, is usually found hiding behind a cairn, up a tree or curled up in a ball, snoozing.

At noon most days, however, visitors to the Highland Wildlife Park at Kincraig near Aviemore will be treated to a fleeting glimpse of its bushy tail, mean green-yellow eyes and thick fur, as one of the nations most elusive creatures emerges to snatch a lump of meat for lunch before retreating to the shadows.

For most park visitors, that brief glimpse of the Scottish wildcats is at the top of their list of must-see attractions, possibly alongside Hamish the juvenile polar bear, a national treasure and the first cub born in the UK for 25 years, and the Amur tiger.

What they wont see, however, is a massive behind-the-scenes effort spanning the UK and Europe, and which its hoped will throw a lifeline to ensuring Scottish wildcats 70 times more endangered than the giant panda will not just be around for generations to come, but could eventually become established in locations right across Scotland.

Tucked out of sight on a patch of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotlands park which is out of bounds to visitors, a new wildcat reintroduction centre is about to become "ground zero" for the survival of a fragile species entwined in Scottish national identity but currently in a fierce catfight for its very survival.

A combination of cross-breeding with feral and domestic cats, habitat loss, road accidents, historic persecution and disease has all but wiped out the purest of Scotlands treasured wildcat population.

Left to their own devices, the tiny number with genes not already severely diluted from mating with outsiders, will dwindle, fade and disappear.

Hopes are now pinned on a 5.5 million scheme led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and, almost certainly, some amorous intervention from the species closest European cousins to help the Scottish wildcat get back on its feet.

By the end of this year, the first wildcats will be in settled in at the new reintroduction centre, 12 breeding pairs which assuming nature takes it course should produce enough healthy offspring to see 60 wildcats reintroduced to carefully picked spots in the Cairngorms over a three-year period.

Eventually its hoped they could be reintroduced elsewhere in Scotland raising the possibility of the creatures becoming commonplace across the country.

Although, according to David Barclay, cat conservation project officer with the RZSS who currently oversees the 107 wildcats in the UK-wide breeding programme, the first challenge is to save the handful of remaining Scottish wildcats from extinction.

Theres perhaps a very small number of wildcats left in Scotland, he admits. And we have a lot of evidence that says the population is non-viable.

Without putting more wildcats back, they will almost certainly go extinct in the next few years.

Wildcats are in that short list of animals that are iconic species for Scotland, such as the golden eagle and the red squirrel, he adds.

For Scotland not to have wildcats would be a very sad day.

At Kincraig, a recent 3.2million EU LIFE grant added to funding from the Garfield Weston Foundation, the National Trust for Scotland, the Peoples Trust for Endangered Species and the European Nature Trust, has enabled work to start on building the new centre.

A recruitment drive is now under way to find 16 staff while plans are being drawn up for a major campaign to encourage domestic cat owners to neuter their pets to avoid the main threat to wildcats future, hybridisation.

Feral or domestic cats that enter the wildcat reserve will be trapped, neutered, vaccinated and released.

Most of the 12 breeding pairs are expected to be sourced mainly from the UK-wide wildcat breeding programme but some are likely to make the journey from Europe, in particular Spain, where wildcats have been found to share physical similarities to their Scottish relations, and populations are more stable.

It may sound like a further erosion of the Scottish wildcats precious gene pool, however Mr Barclay insists the European presence will strengthen, not weaken, the wildcats chances of survival.

The European wildcats will improve the gene pool, he states. The cat we have is a European wildcat, its just a different population thats more critically endangered.

If we have to bring some cats from Europe and it would be a relatively small number we would want to bring them from a population where we feel that there are similarities with Scottish cat.

And Spanish wildcats look very similar to Scottish wildcats.

If you bring wildcats from Europe, you are bringing new genetic material which gives Scottish wildcats a boost in terms of the gene pool.

The fight to save Scotlands wildcats has already crossed international boundaries: as well as working with Scottish Natural Heritage, the Cairngorms National Park Authority and Forestry and Land Scotland, the RSZZ Saving Wildcats project the only official wildcats project in the country is partnered with Swedish wildlife park Nordens Ark, and Spains Junta De Andaluca, which led the successful recovery of the Iberian lynx.

It has been boosted by the arrival of two potential "Adam and Eve" wildcats: male and female, both accidentally trapped, both found to have surprisingly strong wildcat genes.

While the male is now at an English zoo where its hoped nature will soon play its part in boosting wildcat numbers, the female, Lossie, has already produced five kittens from two litters.

Last year, one of her offspring, Katrine, delivered her first litter four kittens, each carrying on its tiny shoulders the future of a species which has roamed Scotlands hills since the Ice Age.

For next few years its about getting all the right tools in one place so we can create a viable, sustainable population of wildcats in one location, adds Mr Barclay.

Once we have been through that process and know that the reintroduction technology works, then we can replicate that across Scotland.

The crucial element is controlling the threat: we cant release them until the threat is removed, and one of the biggest threats in hybrid and domestic cats.

The reintroduction of wildcats would follow in the wake of the reintroduction of sea eagles, water voles and beavers to the wild each native to Scotland but brought to extinction through hunting and loss of habitat.

The wildcats return could also pave the way for other animals including lynx and wolves. Campaign group Rewilding Britain has also suggested the reintroduction of long-gone species including the dalmatian pelican, bison, boar and moose.

Worryingly, however, are further signs that Scottish wildcats and in some cases their European cousins are hanging by the thinnest of threads.

Last month an international genetic study of wildcats in 13 European countries published in the journal Conservation Genetics warned it had failed to identify a single pure wildcat in Scotland.

Across Europe, wildcat numbers were also found to be affected by hybridisation, with the first example of a hybrid cat in the Eastern Alps of Austria.

In Scotland, we found exclusively hybrids of different classes, indicating hybridisation has been occurring for several generations, it states. All samples from Scotland were identified as hybrids supporting previous findings that the genetic integrity of that wildcat population has been seriously compromised.

It also presented a dire warning for the future of the species.

Frequent hybridisation with the domestic cat may regionally threaten the genetic integrity of the European wildcat, as documented by the example of the wildcat in Scotland, it adds, potentially leading even to the genetic extinction of local populations.

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Meet the kittens with the future of a species on their shoulders - HeraldScotland

The mechanism that controls the switch to meiosis has been a topic of scientific investigation for some time, and this breakthrough offers a unique look at a gene trigger that only sometimes becomes active. An important issue for reproductive medicine, researchers are excited for what this discovery could mean.

Knowledge of this process and the gene will be useful in providing a potential answer, but more answers could also mean more treatment options for people struggling with infertility.

"If it eventually becomes possible to control meiosis," said Ishiguro, "the benefits would be far-reaching for reproductive medicine, agricultural production, and even assisting rare species reproduction."

This research is still in early stages, with the announcement of the genetic discovery only being published this week. But it does provide a starting point for a whole new area of research in reproductive medicine going forward, that could result in even more new breakthroughs. Further studies will need to investigate the process of Meiosin in human subjects.

While we may not see this breakthrough being used in medicine anytime soon, it's exciting to know that it may help people in the future. If you're hoping to start a family and are worried about fertility, there's plenty of expert advice for boosting fertility that can be easily adopted.

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Researchers May Have Found A Genetic Cause Of Infertility - mindbodygreen.com

Some of the first biological evidence of the incongruence transgender individuals experience, because their brain indicates they are one sex and their body another, may have been found in estrogen receptor pathways in the brain of 30 transgender individuals.

Twenty-one variants in 19 genes have been found in estrogen signaling pathways of the brain critical to establishing whether the brain is masculine or feminine, saysDr. J. Graham Theisen, obstetrician/gynecologist and National Institutes of Health Womens Reproductive Health Research Scholar at theMedical College of GeorgiaatAugusta University.

Basically and perhaps counterintuitively these genes are primarily involved in estrogens critical sprinkling of the brain right before or after birth, which is essential to masculinization of the brain.

Variants investigators identified may mean that in natal males (people whose birth sex is male) this critical estrogen exposure doesnt happen or the pathway is altered so the brain does not get masculinized. In natal females, it may mean that estrogen exposure happens when it normally wouldnt, leading to masculinization.

Both could result in an incongruence between a persons internal gender and their external sex. The negative emotional experience associated with this incongruence is called gender dysphoria.

They are experiencing dysphoria because the gender they feel on the inside does not match their external sex, Theisen says. Once someone has a male or female brain, they have it and you are not going to change it. The goal of treatments like hormone therapy and surgery is to help their body more closely match where their brain already is.

It doesnt matter which sex organs you have, its whether estrogen, or androgen, which is converted to estrogen in the brain, masculinizes the brain during this critical period, saysDr. Lawrence C. Layman, chief of the MCG Section of Reproductive Endocrinology, Infertility and Genetics in theDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology. We have found variants in genes that are important in some of these different areas of the brain.

These brain pathways are involved in regions of the brain where the number of neurons and how connected the neurons are typically differ between males and females.

They note that while this critical period for masculinizing the brain may seem late, brain development actually continues well after birth and these key pathways and receptors already need to be established when estrogen arrives.

While its too early to definitively say the gene variants in these pathways result in the brain-body incongruence called gender dysphoria, it is interesting that they are in pathways of hormone involvement in the brain and whether it gets exposed to estrogen or not, says Layman.

He and Theisen are co-corresponding authors of the study in the journalScientific Reports.

This is the first study to lay out this framework of sex-specific development as a means to better understand gender identity, Theisen says. We are saying that looking into these pathways is the approach we are going to be taking in the years ahead to explore the genetic contribution to gender dysphoria in humans.

In fact, they already are exploring the pathways further and in a larger number of transgender individuals.

For this study, they looked at the DNA of 13 transgender males, individuals born female and transitioning

to male, and 17 transgender females, born male and transitioning to female. The extensive whole exome analysis, which sequences all the protein-coding regions of a gene (protein expression determines gene and cell function) was performed at the Yale Center for Genome Analysis. The analysis was confirmed by Sanger sequencing, another method used for detecting gene variants.

The variants they found were not present in a group of 88 control exome studies in nontransgender individuals also done at Yale. They also were rare or absent in large control DNA databases.

Reproductive endocrinologist/geneticist Layman says his experience with taking care of transgender patients for about 20 years, made him think there was a biological basis. We certainly think that for the majority of people who are experiencing gender dysphoria there is a biologic component, says Theisen. We want to understand what the genetic component of gender identity is.

While genetics have been suggested as a factor in gender dysphoria, proposed candidate genes to date have not been verified, the investigators say. Most gene or gene variants previously explored have been associated with receptors for androgens, hormones more traditionally thought to play a role in male traits but, like estrogen in males, also are present in females.

MCG investigators and their colleagues decided instead to take what little is known about sex-specific brain development that estrogen bath needed in early life to ensure masculinization of the brain to hone in on potential sites for relevant genetic variances. Extensive DNA testing initially revealed more than 120,000 variants, 21 of which were associated with these estrogen-associated pathways in the brain.

Animal studies have helped identify four areas of the brain with pathways leading to development of a male or female brain, and the investigators focused on those likely also present in humans. Laboratory studies have indicated that disrupting these brain pathways in males and females during this critical period results in cross sex behavior, like female rodents mounting and thrusting and males taking on a more traditional female posture when mating. These cross sex behaviors, which also have been documented in non-human primates, emerge during the natural sex hormone surge of puberty.

While sex specific brain development has not been thoroughly evaluated in humans, as with animals, the effects typically play out most at the time of puberty, a time when sex hormones naturally surge, when the general awareness of our sexuality really begins to awaken and when the complex state of gender dysphoria may become easier for adolescents to articulate, the investigators say. Layman notes that many individuals will report experiencing gender incongruent feelings as early as age 5.

Theisen notes that we all are full of genetic variants, including ones that give us blue eyes versus brown or green, and the majority do not cause disease rather help make us individuals. I think gender is as unique and as varied as every other trait that we have, Theisen says.

The investigators suggest modification of the current system for classifying variants that would not imply that a variant means pathogenic, or disease causing.

Last year, the World Health Organization said that genderincongruenceis not a mental health disorder and six years before thatThe Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, replaced gender identity disorder with general dysphoria.

About 0.5 to 1.4% of individuals born male and 0.2 to 0.3 % of individuals born female meet criteria for gender dysphoria. Identical twins are more likely than fraternal twins to both report gender dysphoria.

Gender affirming therapies, like hormone therapies and surgeries along with mental health evaluation and support, help these individuals better align their bodies and brains, the physician-scientists say.

Transgender individuals experience increased rates of discrimination, sexual violence and are at increased risk of depression, substance abuse and attempted suicide. About 26% report use of alcohol or other drugs to help cope; 19% have been denied medical care by a physician or other provider, some report verbal harassment in a medical environment and insurance companies do not consistently cover the cost of gender affirming hormone or surgical therapies.

A problem, the investigators say, is an overall lack of understanding of the biologic basis of gender dysphoria.

While their study of 30 individuals they now have data on more than 30 others appears to be the largest to date, the sample size prompted them to classify the published findings as preliminary.

Reference: Theisen et al. (2019).The Use of Whole Exome Sequencing in a Cohort of Transgender Individuals to Identify Rare Genetic Variants. Scientific Reports.DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-53500-y.

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Genetic Variants Linked to Disparity Between a Persons Internal Gender and Their External Sex - Technology Networks

Adapted from the cover of Human Diversity(Twelve)Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class, by Charles Murray (Twelve, 528 pp., $35)

The dumb kids at Middlebury College had no idea what they were setting in motion when they stopped Charles Murray from speaking. At an instantly infamous 2017 lecture, students shouted down his speech, waited through a livestreamed discussion between him and a faculty member given from a private location, and swarmed him after the event, injuring the faculty member.

Murray, you see, had been thinking about swimming back toward the fraught waters he and the late Richard Herrnstein had explored in 1994s The Bell Curve notions that traits such as intelligence are hugely important in determining who gets ahead in modern societies, and that gaps on those traits among social groups, including racial groups, could be partly genetic in origin. His wife had been telling him not to.

Confound it! he recalls her saying after the Middlebury affair (. . . or two syllables to that effect). If theyre going to do this kind of thing anyway, go ahead and write it. And now, three years later, we have Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class.

This isnt an intemperate screed meant to trigger oversensitive 19-year-olds, however. Instead, its a patient and generally cautious explanation of where the science stands in the three highly contentious areas mentioned in the subtitle: the biological underpinnings of sex differences, social-class differences, and racial differences.

Those whove been following developments in these areas will find little thats surprising. But those new to the topics will learn a lot, so long as they understand basic statistical concepts well enough to follow Murrays often-a-bit-technical prose. Murray provides some of his own entry-level instruction, but its a little scattershot in terms of what concepts get an explanation in the text, which definitions are relegated to an appendix, and what terms the reader is simply expected to know.

Murray begins with sex differences because theyre the most obvious and hard to deny, so Ill do the same. Men and women have measurably different abilities, preferences, and behaviors; many of those differences do not seem to be shrinking in societies that strive for gender egalitarianism; and new research is establishing some connections between the sexes behaviors and their brains.

Theres a long list of sex differences that researchers have found repeatedly, and they go well beyond physical size. Men are more likely to have autism, women depression. Women are more concerned with the well-being of others; men are more assertive. Men have stronger visuospatial skills, women better verbal ability. Men tend to have higher variation in ability; for example, the sexes have the same average IQ, but men are overrepresented among people with very high or very low IQs. Men and women also have markedly different interests, especially in that men are more likely to prefer working with things, women with people.

These gaps are no doubt at least partly due to socialization and culture, but at least some almost certainly have a biological component. One way of seeing this is to look at what happens when societies adopt stronger norms in favor of gender equity: Do the gaps shrink, as would be expected if socially enforced gender norms caused the gaps to begin with?

Sometimes, sometimes not. Murray goes through a long list of different trends. Male overrepresentation among high scorers on the math portion of the SAT, for example, has shrunk steadily for decades. Womens movement into jobs that involve working with things rather than people, though, happened speedily in the 1970s and 1980s and stopped thereafter, with women still underrepresented in things jobs. (This Murray shows through a fascinating original analysis of federal job classifications and survey data.) Meanwhile, the most gender-egalitarian countries actually have bigger gaps in certain outcomes, such as the share of women who score highly in STEM (science, tech, engineering, and math) tests but choose not to go into those fields. Some theorize that living in an advanced country allows talented women to do what they want rather than what pays most. Another important fact is that women who score highly in STEM tend to have better language skills, and thus more non-STEM job options, than do men who score highly in STEM.

Theres also a growing body of research that looks directly at the effects of male and female hormones and differences in the brains of men and women. Changes in hormone levels tend to exaggerate or reduce sex differences in exactly the direction youd expect people injected with testosterone become more impulsive; prenatal exposure to testosterone predicts a childs future visuospatial ability, autism risk, empathy, and interest in children. As for brains, women have stronger functional connectivity in regions involved in emotion processing and social cognition, and there are sex differences in the sizes of numerous brain regions as well.

Murrays discussion of class differences, meanwhile, relies heavily on a much older body of evidence: the research of behavioral genetics, especially twin studies. Over a period of decades this work has shown that genes are incredibly powerful, though hardly all-powerful, in shaping how a person turns out within a given society whether its his personality, health, intelligence, or education while the shared environment, which is to say the effect of being raised in the same home (with the same income, neighborhood, parenting philosophy, etc.), is generally weak. Newer methods, involving the DNA sequencing of thousands of subjects, actually pinpoint some of the specific genes that affect important traits, and these methods can even be used to generate a polygenic score that predicts from DNA (very imprecisely, but far better than chance) how strongly a person will exhibit a trait.

The clear role of genes in life outcomes, coupled with a weak role for the home environment, implies that social class is not just a matter of privilege and oppression and public policy, and not just a matter of personal responsibility and effort, but also heavily a function of natural abilities. This is not exactly a shocking conclusion, though it does challenge some of the more extreme narratives put forth by both Left and Right.

One criticism Ill make of Murray here, though, is that in noting the limits of public policy he could have dealt more thoroughly with various strains of research showing that environments do matter, sometimes a lot, including Raj Chettys work on how neighborhoods affect social mobility and Susan Dynarskis recent study showing that something as simple as promising financial aid up front, rather than later in the process, can make poor kids much more likely to go to a top-tier college. Educational attainment, by the way, is an important trait that is affected by the shared environment quite a bit: 25 percent in a table presented here, though its also 50 percent genetic.

Lastly, theres race the topic that attracted nearly all of the controversy associated with The Bell Curve despite taking up only a minority of its pages. Interestingly, Murray is more circumspect now than he was in that tome a quarter century ago, when he and Herrnstein wrote that it was highly likely that part of the gap between blacks and whites IQ scores was genetic. Here he is more interested in debunking the notion that race is nothing more than a social construct that has nothing to do with genes at all.

Even on that front hes pretty timid. Indeed, he begins by agreeing to dispense with the word race when talking about genetics, because the word carries so much baggage and the professional geneticists have mostly abandoned it. Instead he goes with population, while noting that the ancestral populations that geneticists distinguish from one another overlap heavily with commonly used racial categories.

Yes, these groups can be identified using nothing but DNA, and yes, there are some important genetic differences among populations: Some less controversial ones affect skin color, malaria resistance, and adaptations for living at high altitudes. In other words, humans have continued to evolve in lots of ways since they spread out across the globe, and different changes have taken hold in different environments. But what about hot-button psychological characteristics such as intelligence?

Youd think wed be getting close to answering that question by now. Recall that weve actually identified a lot of genes that affect these traits, and even developed scoring systems that roughly predict from someones DNA how hell turn out. One imagines you could just apply these techniques to the average DNA profile of each racial group excuse me, population and get a simple answer, albeit a tentative one that would become more precise as methods improved and additional influential genes were discovered.

But its not that easy. For a variety of technical reasons, you cant apply a single scoring system across multiple populations, at least with current methods. Murray notes that the genetic variants weve singled out as playing a role in assorted traits often show up more frequently in some populations than others a point he makes more painstakingly than he probably needs to, with a series of scatterplots and tabulations but he admits these gaps are only grist for future, more sophisticated research. His bottom line is not much different from the point made by the prominent Harvard geneticist David Reich in a 2018 New York Times piece: Human populations differ at the genetic level, and we have to prepare for the possibility that these genetic differences substantively affect traits wed rather they didnt, but we dont know the specifics yet.

In 1994, Herrnstein and Murray lit the world on fire with a book that made highly controversial claims about IQ, class, and race. Human Diversitys publicists no doubt hope for a repeat performance; I had to sign a nondisclosure agreement to see the text before the release date. But the result is actually, as Murray himself promises early on, pretty boring for those already familiar with the topics it covers. What it is, is an excellent primer for the uninitiated at least for a few years, by which point new science will likely have superseded much of the research discussed here.

Hopefully the Middlebury kids and their ilk will bother to read it before denouncing it.

This article appears as The Power of Genes in the February 24, 2020, print edition of National Review.

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'Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class' Book Review - National Review

Following is a transcript of the video.

Graham Flanagan: Look at that beautiful bald man. He's oozing swagger and confidence. He owns it. But it wasn't always like this. This is Rob. He's 33. This is also Rob. He started to lose his hair when he was about 20. So, what happened? Why did Rob go bald, and what does it mean? There's something about being bald and owning it. I mean, look at all these bald icons. Michael Jordan, Jason Statham, his sidekick, The Rock. But losing your hair is not something you aspire to.

Commercial: If you're concerned about your thinning hair, call Hair Club for Men and receive our free brochure.

Flanagan: In fact, there's an entire industry built around fighting it.

Man: And remember: I'm not only the Hair Club president, but I'm also a client.

Flanagan: I asked a dermatologist about why some men lose their hair and if going bald is my destiny as well.

Jennifer Chwalek: So, when we say "baldness," we're usually referring to male-pattern baldness, or androgenetic alopecia. The hair follicle is slowly, over time, becoming smaller and smaller, to the point when it stops producing a full hair. Testosterone is becoming converted to dihydrotestosterone in the hair follicle by an enzyme called 5-alpha-reductase, and when it attaches to the androgen receptor in the hair follicle, it causes the follicle to produce a smaller hair.

Flanagan: So, I want to show you my friend Rob here. Rob started losing his hair in his early 20s, and, as you can see, there's little to...well, there's none left. So what is going on with Rob?

Chwalek: Well, Rob has what we call androgenetic alopecia, or male-pattern baldness. This is due to several genes. And some of the genes are early expressing, and some susceptible individuals, they start to lose their hair very young, usually by age 30.

Flanagan: The fact that Rob is bald, does that make him any less virile?

Chwalek: No. So, it's a myth that hair loss or balding is associated with virility in men. Men who go bald don't have abnormal levels of testosterone. It's really that the hair follicle becomes sensitized to the effects of testosterone or androgens, and it starts to create a smaller hair, and eventually it stops producing hair.

Flanagan: So, what role do genetics play, and is it true that baldness is inherited from your mom's side?

Chwalek: The genetics of male-pattern thinning and baldness is complicated. We know that the androgen receptor gene is on the X chromosome, which is inherited from your maternal side, typically. So, there are some studies showing that having a brother who expresses male-pattern baldness might be more predictive than if your father has male-pattern thinning.

Flanagan: Let's talk about me.

Chwalek: Mm-hmm.

Flanagan: I'm 37. I've still got some hair.

Chwalek: Yeah.

Flanagan: But can you tell me what's going on? Am I gonna go bald?

Chwalek: Well, do you have a family history of any thinning?

Flanagan: Yes, I do, on my dad's side. My dad, pretty much bald, his brother is bald. I have a brother who has a very thick head of hair.

Chwalek: Do you think your hair has been thinning?

Flanagan: I think it might be, like, in the front a little bit. I don't really know what's going up top there.

Chwalek: Yeah, maybe a little.

Flanagan: Really?

Chwalek: Maybe a little. So, androgenetic alopecia is actually not an uncommon trait. About 40% of the population has some degree of thinning, usually between the ages of, like, 20 to 40.

Flanagan: My wife, Janet, she really likes my blond hair, and if it were to go, that could be a problem. So, how long do you think I've got to keep some semblance of this?

Chwalek: I think you probably have a while to go. I think you're gonna be OK. The men who tend to go bald-bald tend to do so by age 30, usually.

Flanagan: Based on what you see, my age, what I've described about my family, you don't expect my hair to just fall out in the next, like, five years?

Chwalek: No, it would be unusual, but you may notice, you know, as you get a little bit older, it may continue to thin slightly.

Flanagan: OK, that's a relief. Fantastic. That's great!

Excerpt from:
The reason some men go bald, according to a dermatologist - Business Insider - Business Insider

Following is a transcript of this movie.

Graham Flanagan: Look at this gorgeous bald guy. He has oozing swagger and confidence. He possesses it. Nevertheless, it was not always like this. That is Rob. He is 33. This can also be Rob. He began to lose his hair when he was going 20. So, what happened? Why did Rob go hairless, and what exactly does it mean? There is something about being owning it. I mean, look at these bald icons. Michael Jordan, Jason Statham, his sidekick, The Rock. However losing your hair isnt something you aspire to.

Commercial: In case you are worried about your thinning hair, telephone Hair Club for Men and get our free brochure.

Flanagan: In actuality, there is an whole industry built around battling it.

Person: And remember: I am not the Hair Club president, however I am also a customer.

Flanagan: I requested a dermatologist about why some men lose their hair and when moving bald is my fate too.

Jennifer Chwalek: Therefore, once we sayhair thinning, we are generally referring to male-pattern baldness, or androgenetic alopecia. The hair follicle is gradually, with time, getting smaller and smaller, to this stage when it ceases producing a complete hair. Testosterone has turned into to dihydrotestosterone in the hair follicle via an enzyme known as 5-alpha-reductase, and once it attaches to the androgen receptor from the hair follicle, it causes the follicle to create a more compact hair.

Flanagan: Therefore, I wish to reveal my buddy Rob here. Rob began losing his hair in his ancient 20s, and, as you may see, there is little . . .well, there is none left. So whats happening with Rob?

Chwalek: Well, Rob has that which we call androgenetic alopecia, or male-pattern hair loss. This can be due to many genes. And a few of the genes have been ancient expressing, and a few vulnerable people, they begin to lose their own hair really young, typically by era 30.

Flanagan: The very fact that Rob is hairless, does this make him less virile?

Chwalek: No. Thus, it is a fantasy that hair balding or loss is connected with virility in men. Men who go bald do not have abnormal levels of testosterone. It is really the hair follicle becomes more sensitized to the effects of testosterone or androgens, and it begins to make a more compact hair, and finally it stops generating hair.

Flanagan: So, what part do genetics play, and can it be accurate that hair loss is inherited from the mothers side?

Chwalek: The genetics of male-pattern thinning and hair loss is complex. We are aware that the androgen receptor gene is on the X chromosome, which is inherited from the maternal side, generally. So, there are a number of studies showing that with a brother that expresses male-pattern baldness may be more predictive than if your dad has male-pattern thinning.

Flanagan: Lets talk about me.

Chwalek: Mm-hmm.

Flanagan: I am 37. I have still got a few hair.

Chwalek: Yeah.

Flanagan: But can you tell me what is happening? Am I gonna go bald?

Chwalek: Well, have you got a family history of any thinning?

Flanagan: Yes, I really do, in my fathers side. My father, pretty much bald, and his brother is hairless. Ive a brother with quite a thick head of hair.

Chwalek: Can you believe that your hair was thinning?

Flanagan: I think that it could be, for example, at front just a little bit. I do not know what is going up .

Chwalek: Yeah, perhaps just a bit.

Flanagan: Really?

Chwalek: Perhaps a bit. Thus, androgenetic alopecia is really not an unusual trait. Approximately 40percent of the populace has some level of thinning, normally between the ages of, for example, 20 to 40.

Flanagan: My wife, Janet, she actually likes my blonde hair, and if it were to proceed, that might be an issue. So, how long do you believe I have to maintain some semblance of the?

Chwalek: I believe you most likely have some time to go. I believe you are gont be OK. The guys who are inclined to go bald-bald often do this by era 30, generally.

Flanagan: According to what you see, my era, what I have described about my loved ones, you do not expect my hair to simply fall out at another, for example, five decades?

Chwalek: It would be odd, but you could notice, you understand, as you get a little bit old, it might continue to lean slightly.

Flanagan: OK, that is a relief. Excellent. That is fantastic!

See original here:
The reason some guys go hairless, as reported by a dermatologist - BingePost

If you look up the word "chin" in the encyclopedia, you will read about Kirk Douglas. This isn't an exaggeration or a figure of speech: Douglas is literally named as an example of someone with a chin in the Oxford University Press entry for the mandibular arch.

It makes sense: there have been few chins in human history as noteworthy as Douglas'. When the actor died at the extraordinary age of 103 on Wednesday, obituaries seemed to mourn the loss of his dimple as much as his talent. "That famously dimpled chin, which you'd never believe on a statue, nonetheless gave the Hollywood icon a granite jaw that served him well as a leading man for more than 60 years," wrote Vanity Fair. "When you hear his name, so crisp and ramrod strong (Kirk!), you think, at first, of how he looked: the jutting chin with a dimple that made it unlike all other jutting chins," gushed Variety. The Los Angeles Times chose to describe the actor as a "dimple-chinned screen icon who was known for bringing an explosive, clenched-jawed intensity to a memorable array of heroes and heels."

Embed from Getty Images

Of course chins, being at the lower center of our faces, have an outsized effect on perceived attractiveness, for better or worse. Curiously, humans are actually the only animal that have jutting lower jaws; "even chimpanzees and gorillas, our closest genetic cousins, lack chins," writes The Smithsonian, noting that the great apes' jaws slope down and back from their teeth instead of protruding forward. While researchers aren't sure why exactly humans have chins in the first place even Neanderthals didn't have them one hypothesis is that they were possibly a sexually selective feature that factored unconsciously into our choice of mates. These days, though, it's not so unconscious: Vulture has ranked Batmans by their chins, and BuzzFeed once ran a list of the Most Important Jawlines of 2014.

Despite being best known for portraying a rakish Spartacus in Stanley Kubrick's 1960 epic of the same name, Douglas' bullseye on his jaw wouldn't have been considered attractive 2,000-odd years ago. "In images whose beauties were of a lofty cast, the Greek artists never allowed a dimple to break the uniformity of the chin's surface," claimed Johann Joachim Winckelmann in The History of Ancient Art Among the Greeks in 1764, adding that "when, in drawings made from them, the lower part of [the chin] seems, as it were, to be pinched in ... it may justly be suspected that some modern ignorant hand has been attempting to improve upon them." In other words, dimples like Douglas', while left up to the mercy of genetics, have come and gone in popularity; the screen actor just happened to be born at the right time for his maximalist jawline to be in fashion.

Story continues

Even by the standards of the time, though, when masculine icons from Batman to Clark Gable boasted clefts, Douglas was an extreme. "When I made my first picture [The Strange Love of Martha Ivers in 1946] with Barbara Stanwyck, the director wanted me to fill it in and I said 'listen, this is what you get.' I didn't cave," Douglas told The Telegraph in 2016. It was a decision that would have a lasting impact; as Douglas began to collect more on-screen roles, directors and agents realized they could use his dimple to their advantage, alternating between emphasizing it as a trait of a classical (if anachronistic) hero, or to accentuate the look of a tougher sort, like his character in Champion. As the Financial Times put it, regardless of if he was playing a good guy or a bad guy, "the Kirk jaw was made for clenching."

Embed from Getty Images

It was also made for exaggerating. Artists leaned into depicting Douglas' distinctive jaw, but the actor never minded; in addition to the customary hand and foot prints outside the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, he jokingly left behind an imprint of his chin as well. The body part was also a favorite topic of conversation in interviews: "It's not really a dimple, it's a hole in the chin," a bearded Douglas once told Dick Cavett, who quipped in response, "well I know if we could see it, it'd be the most cleavage we've had on the show in a long time." Seemingly everyone had questions about how he navigated shaving the thing. Later, when Douglas' grandson, Dylan, was born in 2000, The New York Post announced "NEWBORN HAS THE DOUGLAS DIMPLE" with the same drama as Rafiki holding up Simba to the savannah. Subsequent male actors with head-turning chins rode on the coattails of his success, from John Travolta to Simon Cowell. Nevertheless, on the occasion of Douglas' 100th birthday in 2016, The New Yorker declared that "the cleft in the Douglas chin is, with the exception of the Grand Canyon, the most popular natural rift in America."

Embed from Getty Images

But physical trends come and go; just as Douglas' passing marks the loss of one of the last remaining legends of the Golden Age of Hollywood, so too do we lose one of the great chins of history. These days, plastic surgery websites advertise procedures to smooth out one's jawline: "Although chins with a dimple were once more popular, these have largely gone out of fashion, and some patients have preferred to have their dimple reduced, often with the use of fillers," cosmetic surgeon Dr. Julian De Silva told The Daily Mail in 2017.

Douglas, though, was nothing if not a titan of the industry, and he didn't make over 90 movies, many of them masterpieces of classic Hollywood cinema, by relying on his facial structure alone. To quote Angelo Dundee, a boxing instructor who coached Muhammad Ali, "You can't train a chin." The mandible, just like stardom, is elusive, innate, impossible to capture with words. You either have it or you don't.

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Kirk Douglas was the best thing to ever happen to chins - Yahoo News

At dusk on January 24th I was walking along the side of the road. There was a lull in traffic and it was wonderfully quiet. Immersed in my own thoughts, this metallic buzzing chirp somehow entered my head.

At dusk on January 24th I was walking along the side of the road. There was a lull in traffic and it was wonderfully quiet. Immersed in my own thoughts, this metallic buzzing chirp somehow entered my head. It came from the open overgrown pasture behind trees. I paused and counted up to fifteen weird chirps before they ended. A minute or two later I heard a faint twittering chip chip whistling sound from high above descending to earth. Seconds later the whistling stopped. At ground level from the hidden field came subdued but excited bird talk. It quickly hushed.

I had just heard, not seen, the sky dance of the woodcock. The male puts on a spectacular courtship display to impress his lady. This guy tried to first catch her attention by issuing piercing peents, launched high into the sky before circling down chirping as wind whistled through his flight feathers, then apparently landed near her and had tried to strike up a conversation. Whats a timberdoodle like you doing in a place like this? He started to repeat the entire process again, but four widely spaced trucks drove past as darkness settled. By the time the noise had ceased, it was dark and still.

The woodcock (Scolopax minor) goes by many curious names: timberdoodle, big-eye, mudbat, bogsucker and night partridge. It is a shore bird that has come inland to live, like the Killdeer. The bird, about the size of a robin, is disguised in russets, browns and blacksnatural camouflage. These hardy birds have long thin bills since they like to slurp down earthworms. Woodcocks are part of the natural food chain, they themselves eaten by hawks, owls and other predators. Unfortunately, their populations are in decline as habitats are being destroyed. by us. Fields sprayed with herbicides and fertilizers to support cattle, tainted water sources and development (houses, roads) are all culprits.

The perfect lead-in to Gardening with the Experts held January 25th at Gordon Cooper Tech Center. The 22nd annual program was presented by the Shawnee Community Beautification Committee. Master Gardener Tom Terry introduced the first speaker, Dr. Yoon Kik Kim, bee savior of Urban Landscaping for Pollinators.

What affects honeybee populations? Small hive beetles make a gooey mess of honey and bees abandon their hive. Varroa mites, comparable to ticks, feed on bee body fat and cause deformed wings and disturbed immune systems. Genetically modified corn and soybean pollen often kill bees. The herbicide Glyphosate (we saw pictures of rats riddled with tumors) destroys the gut bacteria in bees and disrupts their navigation systems. Bees can travel up to three miles from their hive. Dr. Kim noted agricultural chemical researchers for Bayer test adult bees, not the eggs or grubs.

In the Dec/Jan 2020 issue of Mother Earth, Jonathan Lundgren said many pesticides dont kill bees outright, but affect genetics, hormones and microbial allies. Agriculture is reshaping biological communities too fast, and the honeybee is one of the casualties. Lundgren feels no approach will succeed unless agriculture itself is reformed. Healthy soils make healthy plants.

Beekeeper Kim knows all too well the ups and downs of the bee world. He lost most of his bees last year to small hive beetle.

Solutions: Diversify plants to scatter bloom times through spring, summer and fall. Maples bloom February and March, black locusts April to May, alfalfa and Vitex May to frost, white sweet clover April to July (yellow sweet clover later May to July), persimmons May to June, cotton July to frost and buckwheat late summer to frost (buckwheat honey is dark sweet axle grease ). Do not mow when plants are blooming and producing nectar. Dont create green deserts by mowing everything. Develop sustainable environmental laws in Shawnee. Healthy plants make healthy bees.

Gardening in a Box with Larry and Letitia Pierce is an easier way to garden. Benefits: no weeding, boxes are portable and the automatic watering system saves up to 70% in water usage. The gardening boxes seem to encourage robust plants. Larry demonstrated the basic layout of the gardening box. He revealed the false bottom, plastic shelf with two wicking holes, white water tube and overflow hole in side. A small box with float valve controlled the water level of boxes which are linked by tubes.

Leticia knows how important bees are to flowers and proclaimed she was a secret stalker of Dr. Kim! Beautiful color pictures were shown of the January 2019 pepper harvest, Bloody Butcher and Japonica corn, enormous tomato plants and huge cabbages.

The talk ended with this quote by Alice Walker (The Color Purple): In search of my mothers garden, I found my own. A sentiment shared by many. My mothers father always raised a garden. She loved azaleas and patio plants. I go for trees.

Dr. Qing Lana Luo spoke about Rain Gardens for Naturally Resilient Communities and Sustainability. For 17 years she was a park designer of public open spaces and is well qualified to discuss gardens that cleanse and encourage water to infiltrate into the soil. Rain gardens may be in-ground, raised beds, wet, dry, oval, round, free form, with or without curbs.

Rain gardens must have level basins with inflow and overflow components. They are designed to receive runoff from the roof or impervious surfaces and planted areas. Placement must be 10 feet away from a building or house foundation, 100 feet from a wellhead and not in an area with a high-water table.

So, how well does the soil drain? A percolation test can be easily done. Dig a hole 6 inches deep and 6 inches wide, fill with water and measure how fast it drains in 24 hours. Excellent time is 1-6 hours. Passable is from 6-16 hours, but if it takes over 24 hours, find another spot.

Rain gardens act as sponges that mitigate the soil. In a natural system there is 10% runoff and 50% infiltration. Urbanized areas have 55% surface runoff and only 15% infiltration. Rain gardens are important in sustainable stormwater management since they reduce flooding and improve water quality. OSU Fact Sheet HLA-6454 Sustainable Landscapes: Designing a Rain Garden for Residential Property gives the whys, how-to-dos and right plants for the job.

The program finished on a high note. Twenty-four cool gardening ideas had been submitted by attendees. Top tips:

For simple plant food, save the veggie water from lunch or supper (no salt please) and put on plants or garden.

To prevent mosquitoes, add some drops of veggie oil to your birdbath or rain barrel. It will form a protective film over the surface of water. Oil floats.

For the physically impaired gardener who wants to extend or make a new plant bed, consider the Lasagna Garden. Begin with cardboard over grass, cover with leaves, compost, more leaves, aged manure and topsoil.

Some amazing door prizes were given away. The seed swap ended the informative morning. National Seed Swap Day is always the last Saturday in January.

Bee gardens, box gardens, rain gardens. Landscape with nature in mind. Choose one or all three. Spring is coming, so twitters the timberdoodle.

Becky Emerson Carlberg, graduate of Oklahoma State (Plant Pathology) is a teacher, artist, writer as well as certified Oklahoma Master Gardener and Master Naturalist. Contact her at Becscience@att.net.

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Gardens of the Cross Timbers: Bee, box and rain gardens - Miami News Record

San Diegos first zoo elephants arrived by train in 1923, from San Francisco.

Queenie and Empress walked off a special railroad car and refused to budge. Harry Wegeforth, the zoos founder and a legendary quick-thinker he sometimes stopped his car to snatch wild animals for the collection tried another approach.

Suspecting that the elephants were used to being ridden, he climbed on one, another zoo employee got on the other, and off they went, clomping up Fourth Street, across the Cabrillo Bridge, and onto the zoo grounds in Balboa Park. People stopped what they were doing and stared.

Almost a century later, the worlds largest land mammals still make jaws drop. But nobody rides them to the zoo any more. Many things about their handling and care have changed as the zoo and its sister site, the Safari Park, became leaders in an industry that draws 180 million visitors annually and increasingly prides itself on conservation, not just entertainment.

Much remains unknown about elephants, too witness the death in December at the zoo of 48-year-old Tembo. A sudden change in the African pachyderms condition prompted keepers to euthanize her, according to zoo officials. They said shed been under veterinary care for age-related ailments for a while. Results of a necropsy are pending.

Tembo

(Ken Bohn / San Diego Zoo Global)

Her death came four weeks after another African elephant, MDunda, collapsed and died at the Oakland Zoo. She was 50 and had shown no signs of existing medical issues, albeit her advanced age, the zoo said. A necropsy is under way there, too.

Elephants also die in the wild, of course, and often violently. But their passing in zoos raises thorny questions about what is gained by keeping them captive.

A 2012 investigation by The Seattle Times analyzed the deaths of 321 elephants at accredited zoos in the U.S. over the previous 50 years and found that most died from injury or disease linked to conditions of their captivity. Half of the elephants were dead by the age of 23, well below their expected life spans, according to the report.

The decades-long effort by zoos to preserve and protect elephants is failing, exacerbated by substandard conditions and denial of mounting scientific evidence that most elephants do not thrive in captivity, the newspaper concluded.

The difficulties and cost of keeping elephants healthy, coupled with persistent pressure from animal activists and other critics, have prompted more than 30 North American zoos to shut down their elephant exhibits since the early 1990s, including sites in Detroit, San Francisco, Toronto and other major cities. But zoos in Milwaukee and Atlanta have gone in the other direction, expanding their elephant exhibits or building new ones.

San Diego Zoo Global, the umbrella organization for the zoo and the Safari Park in Escondido, maintains one of the largest herds of elephants outside their natural ranges. The zoos Elephant Odyssey, designed for older animals, has three ages 40, 43, and 56. There are nine at the Safari Parks Elephant Valley, ranging from age 1 to 30.

Behind the scenes, keepers and scientists are studying the animals behaviors and biology in ways they believe have improved the care there and may help sustain populations in Asia, where elephants are considered endangered, and in Africa, where they are threatened. They point to the unusual breeding success of the elephants at the Safari Park so productive that five of them were sent to a zoo in Tucson, Ariz., in 2012 to start a satellite herd. A baby was born there two years later, and the mother is pregnant again.

Such is the nature of the ongoing controversy about elephants in captivity that San Diego Zoo Global has been both praised and scorned for its breeding program. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums gave it an award in 2014 for a truly significant captive propagation effort that clearly enhances the management of the species. Last month, the activist group In Defense of Animals, citing a lack of adequate space and social structures for more babies, placed the Safari Park on its annual list of the Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants.

Krissy Boeche, senior elephant keeper at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park takes a blood sample from Neepo, an eight-year-old African elephant during a physical exam on January 22, 2020.

(Howard Lipin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

On a recent weekday afternoon in a back corner of the elephant exhibit at the Safari Park, senior keeper Krissy Boeche called Neepo over for a health check.

Hes an 8-year-old African elephant. Like the others, hes been painstakingly trained (with food as the reward) to stand next to metal bars and present various body parts for inspection: feet, trunk, teeth, ears.

On this day, Boeche also drew blood from one of Neepos ears for a new project aimed at better understanding a herpes virus that kills elephants. For a long time, experts believed the EEHV virus was a problem mostly for Asian elephants, but an outbreak last year at the Indianapolis Zoo changed that. Two African elephants, one 6 years old and the other 8, died within weeks of each other.

We realized theres a lot we dont know, said Dr. Lauren Howard, a zoo veterinarian. This is a chance to learn more.

The virus circulates in the Safari Park herd, a normal occurrence. But why does it become active in some elephants and not in others? Regular blood draws and other tests over the next year will help establish baselines, identify risk factors and point the way toward evidence-based care recommendations, Howard said.

Were trying to build up confidence in what we find, not just in one elephant, but the whole herd, Howard said. We want to be able to tell colleagues in the elephant-care community: This is the way you can monitor or manage your elephants to reduce and prevent death from herpes virus.

Zoo workers are also looking for ways to find the virus that might help managers in the wild. Being able to do a blood-draw from an elephant there is difficult, if not impossible, and its dangerous. Can the virus be evaluated instead in saliva or feces, both easier to collect?

Neepo was born at the Safari Park, as were five other current occupants there. In general, zoo managers see births as evidence that animals are thriving.

Mindy Albright, the lead elephant keeper, said newborns also provide opportunities to record various developmental milestones information that can help managers in the wild figure out how old certain elephants are and whether they are healthy. Another study of elephant milk at the park may lead to improvements in formula given to orphaned elephants in Africa.

Umzula-zuli was the San Diego Zoo Safari Parks 13th elephant was born August 13, 2018, which coincidentally is World Elephant Day. The male calf African elephant walking next to his mother, Ndlulamitsi.

(Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Its exciting that things we do here go back to help elephants in the wild, she said.

Critics like Ed Stewart, co-founder of Performing Animal Welfare Society or PAWS think the money and effort would be better spent preserving and restoring wild habitats, beyond what SD Zoo Global, considered a leader in conservation, is already doing.

Thats the problem we need to solve, he said. The only way to save elephants is to save their habitat. And thats not the work of zoologists. Thats the work of politicians, land-use attorneys, economists.

His group operates three sanctuaries in Northern California, including a 2,300-acre one that houses eight elephants sent there from zoos and circuses. Even at our place, and we have more space than anywhere else, we cant match what the elephants need, he said. Theres no state of the art way to keep elephants in captivity.

He said laudable research is being done on elephants in San Diego, but he questioned the validity of captive breeding.

In some cases, such as the California condor, captive breeding followed by reintroduction to the wild has been credited with saving a species from extinction. But nobody has taken a captive-born elephant and turned it loose in nature, Stewart said, so the main reason zoos breed them is to maintain populations for public display. Entrance fees fund the zoos, and elephants have long been popular with customers. Cute newborns trigger spikes in attendance.

I dont look at a baby elephant standing behind a fence as a success, he said. I think the public thinks if you can breed elephants, theres nothing to worry about. But youre creating animals that will just grow up in captivity and live in a deprived situation. Theres no other way to put it.

Zoo keepers would disagree with the deprived part. Albright said elephants in captivity dont have to scrounge for food or water. Poachers, climate change, fatal interactions with humans moving into previously undeveloped territory life in the wild is no picnic, either.

These guys, she said, nodding at the parks herd, get to relax.

Khosi, a thee-year-old African elephant opens her mouth so Peter Hagopian, an elephant keeper at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park , can get a look at her teeth during a physical exam on January 22, 2020.

(Howard Lipin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

When the group In Defense of Animals released its yearly Ten Worst Zoos list on Jan. 23, it criticized San Diego Zoo Global for breaking the social bonds between elephants at the Safari Park by moving several to other sites in 2019. Two males were sent to a zoo in Texas, two others to one in Alabama. A fifth elephant went to Zoo Atlanta.

Zoos regularly attempt to justify moves like these by pointing out that wild male elephants leave their families at about age 13, said Laura Bridgeman, director of In Defense of Animals elephant campaign. However, in nature, young males separate gradually from their families they are not suddenly ripped away from them to be transported across the country.

The San Rafael-based group has been compiling the list for 16 years, and the one other time San Diego made it, in 2006, was for moving elephants, too. That came after seven African elephants were brought to the park from Swaziland, where managers said the animals risked being killed because of space constraints in the tiny countrys nature preserves. To make room for the arrivals, the Safari Park sent three of its elephants to the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. All were dead within two years.

Zoo officials have not publicly responded to In Defense of Animals, but the industry moves animals around for a variety of reasons, including breeding and herd compatibility, and its rarely done hastily. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums has a Species Survival Plan that tracks the age, health, genetics and other factors of the roughly 300 elephants currently kept at about 65 accredited zoos in the U.S. The plan guides when and where elephants are moved.

Ongoing research at zoos into nutrition, physiology and reproduction also plays a role in transfers, according to the association.

While the debate about moving elephants around continues, zoos routinely point to another reason for keeping the animals in captivity. One of our main efforts is to inspire all our guests to care about wildlife, Robert Wiese, chief life sciences officer for San Diego Zoo Global, told the Union-Tribune in a 2016 interview. Getting up close to an elephant or feeling a bird swoop over us or seeing a bizarre insect those are opportunities to transform someone so when they go home and hear about wildlife issues they can be ready to act.

The potential audience is huge. According to industry estimates, more people go to zoos and aquariums in the U.S. than attend professional baseball, football, basketball and hockey games combined. A 2018 book, The Ark and Beyond: The Evolution of Zoo and Aquarium Conservation, notes that annual visitors to zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, nature centers and natural history museums make up a tenth of the people on the planet.

But whether they are motivated to help animals later is an open question. Research has been mixed.

People go to the zoo to laugh, eat popcorn and watch their kids run around, said Lisa Landres, a former elephant keeper at the San Diego Zoo. The amount of people enjoying animals for what they are you could count on one hand.

Landres was a key whistleblower in a notorious elephant-mistreatment incident at the Safari Park (then called the Wild Animal Park) in 1988, which involved trainers disciplining an elephant by hitting her on the head repeatedly with wooden sticks. Landres later became an investigator for the Humane Society of the United States, traveling around the country for more than 10 years to inspect zoos and circuses. What she saw, she said, prompted her to leave that world.

We cant give elephants what they need in captivity, she said. We just cant. A few enlightened zoos have come to the conclusion that if we cant do it properly, we shouldnt do it at all. But too many others just care about the money they can make, the bottom line.

Shed like to see a day when people visit hologram zoos and there are no elephants in captivity. If you want to see one in the flesh, you have to go where they live, she said.

Her wish may come true. In North American zoos as a whole, the populations of Asian and African elephants are not self-sustaining. Previously productive elephants are getting too old to have babies, and there arent yet enough young ones to fill the gap.

But some zoos are more optimistic than others. At the Safari Park, plans are under way to build a new viewing area that will bring visitors closer to the elephant herd.

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The elephant in the room: Are zoos suitable homes for the world's largest land mammals? - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Vincent Smith

Without long-term outcome data, the risks of individual procedures cant be quantified, nor can the advantages of waiting versus intervening early. Its also unclear whether patients whove gone public reflect most intersex peoples experiences. Clinicians dont know how much of the reported distress arises from outdated surgical techniques, nor do they know yet whether current procedures will prove any better.

Researchers are attempting to better gauge outcomes and satisfaction rates. A forthcoming European report will describe the opinions of more than one thousand intersex patients and their doctors regarding satisfaction with anatomical and functional results of genital surgery, according to a 2019 review article in theJournal of Pediatric Urology. Institutions are conducting other retrospective and prospective studies, such as a U.S. endeavor at multiple sites, including HMS.

Clinicians also are turning to transgender patients for insight. Teens and adults can provide immediate feedback on medical and surgical procedures and describe broad ranges of desired outcomes, which can then inform intersex care, says surgeon Diamond. The relationship seems fitting, since certain surgical interventions for transgender affirmation were informed by procedures developed for infants with DSDs.

But for many intersex advocates, the wait is too long for the results of such endeavors. Over the past decade, advocacy groups have led a global movement calling for a moratorium on genital and gonadal surgeries without patient consent. International health and human rights organizations, including the United Nations and the World Health Organization, have condemned the procedures, and several countries have restricted them. In February, the European Parliament urged member states to prohibit nonconsensual sex-normalizing surgeries as soon as possible. Some medical societies, consortia, and prominent figures such as a trio of former U.S. surgeons general have echoed the call. Several states, such as California, have considered bans.

This sea change has evoked an array of reactions, even among patients. People with CAH in particular say that an outright ban will do more harm than good by depriving families of the option to choose surgery. Appending an objection to a 2019 consensus paper by German academics that supported a ban, one CAH group said the majority of those with CAH who identify as female are satisfied with the results of their feminizing surgery and glad to have completed it in infancy.

The idea that the bodily autonomy of intersex children supersedes parents traditional roles as health care proxies remains a point of contention. National medical ethics councils in Finland, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland say parents cannot authorize medically unnecessary surgery on genitals or gonads; the 2016 Global DSD Update says they can. Though the United States has not ruled on DSDs, its law and culture generally side with parents right to choose, say Garland and Diamond, and many clinicians continue to defer to them on intersex care.

When we discuss the pros and cons of surgery with the family and they say, We understand the different ways to go and this is what we think is best for our child, I accept that that is a responsible way to manage the child, says Diamond.

Some clinicians fear losing the ability to use their medical expertise to guide families and make decisions based on individual cases. It is not logical to impose mandatory restrictions on surgery in an area as complicated as this, reads a 2017 joint statement from seven U.S. urology and endocrinology societies.

Rosario served as chair of the medical advisory board for the Intersex Society of North America from 2002 to 2006 before he joined the UCLA DSD clinic. Initially against infant genital-normalizing surgery, he found that my opinion softened with actual clinical experience, he says.

Arguments roil about where gender-normalizing surgery falls along the spectrum of acts performed on infant genitalia. All fifty U.S. states condemn female genital mutilation, some advocates point out, so why should intersex surgery be considered differently? Others make comparisons to male circumcision, yet that practice also has been questioned. Professional societies are increasingly supporting interventions for transgender patients, so why deny the choice to those with DSDs, people ask?

While individual clinicians may support restricting infant genital-normalizing surgery, Garland wonders whether the threat of malpractice litigation explains why the U.S. medical profession tends to emphasize following the standard of care rather than trying nonintervention. He adds that in countries where the law requires scientific evidence and careful testing to establish the safety and efficacy of medical interventions, its been determined that these surgeries clearly dont meet that standard.

Pressure to change may come from peers, such as the Massachusetts Medical Society, which is debating a recommendation to delay surgeries on infants with DSDs that are of a non-emergent status until the individual has the capacity to participate in the decision. Doctors listen to other doctors, points out Smith, who serves on the LGBTQ committee that submitted the proposal.

Lawsuits also could influence U.S. medical practice. In a case that settled out of court in 2017, parents sued two South Carolina hospitals and a social services department for having performed feminizing surgery on a child they later adopted who grew up to identify as male.

Should DSD care shift, we will need a new way of thinking about how to determine when a child is able to consent, says Garland.

Those who worry about the lack of comparative data between early, delayed, and no intervention may take note as more nations and institutions restrict surgery on minors.

We may have our control group developing in Europe, says Diamond.

As more practitioners view forgoing surgery as an option, they turn to more flexible alternatives meant to support patients gender expression, such as hormone treatments. Surgeons also consider middle-ground procedures that preserve gender options as children grow.

In a 2018 case review in theJournal of Pediatric Urology, Diamond and colleagues described three infants with genetic mosaicism and complex urogenital and gonadal features whose parents all opted, among other procedures, to create vaginas but preserve the phalluses while they waited for their children to develop a gender. Two families were tentatively raising their children female; the other, gender neutral.

I wouldnt have thought that way at all ten years ago, says Diamond, who estimates he sees one hundred DSD patients a year in the Behavioral Health, Endocrinology, Urology (BE-U) program at Boston Childrens. My frame of mind would have been that the surgical options were more of a binary choice.

To those who believe that refraining from intervention does the least harm, Diamond says, You do your best, and you do it with a lot of humility because you know that no matter what you do, as much data as you have, you may be wrong.

Clinicians continue to learn how to avoid inadvertently making things worse for people with DSDs. Research studies and patient advocacy reports have documented the long-term psychological harm stemming from health care experiences such as repeated genital examinations and photography, depersonalization, and demeaning language.

Thats part of why psychologists and social workers have become essential members of DSD care teams over the past 20 years, although experts agree that psychosocial care still isnt available to enough families.

Surgeons and other specialists focus on their areas, particularly on the genitals, and they dont pay as much attention to the rest of the person, says Rosario. My job is to ask, how are you doing in school, and how are you doing with friends?

Although there is variation across conditions, initial research suggests that people with DSDs are more prone than the general population to mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, post-traumatic stress disorder, and trouble with intimacy. Such disparities may arise from treatment, culture, or the biology of the DSDs themselves.

Other studies assess the frequency, severity, and nature of parental distress when children receive DSD diagnoses. Researchers at HMS and elsewhere have found that unexpected anatomical variations, the possibility of stigma, and lack of clarity about the childs cancer risk, fertility, and future gender identity can cause significant anguish. Yet they also have found that caregivers of intersex children are no more depressed and, in fact, are less anxious than the general population.

Still more questions center on what should be done if the bulk of distress over DSDs arises from societal rather than medical issues.

In an era of gender-reveal parties and bathroom access controversies, having a perfectly happy baby with DSD can be like a crisis for families, says Smith. If there are no accompanying medical issues, then it becomes an entirely social-driven crisis.

Clinicians and parents often cite the desire to protect children from social harm when they opt for gender-normalizing procedures. Why, critics ask, in a culture built around binary sex, is the standard solution to alter bodies that are nonbinary rather than broaden societal conceptions of sex and gender?

Its really fraught when a concerned parent or physician thinks that a child who is intersex, and maybe doesnt present in a typical manner, is therefore going to have a harder time in the world, says Potter. That might be true, it might not be true, but in any event, trying to fix it so that they look like people with binary bodies may make a big mess of things.

Maybe we should be trying to help parents, and by extension the people surrounding the parentsthe extended family, the school system, all of these placesbecome more knowledgeable that theres a spectrum of sex presentation, she adds. Instead of conforming a child to something, transform the world in which they live. Then life may not be so hard.

Thats where law can also play a significant role, stopping discrimination and encouraging increased support for parents and children, says Garland.

While Garland, Potter, and others envision a more DSD-friendly future, they acknowledge that the systemic changes required will take time and effort. Meanwhile, others point out, clinicians, patients, and families must live in todays cultural contexts.

Discomfort with atypical sex characteristics is very much a societal problem, but we are caring for human beings who are brought up in our society to think in certain ways, says Diamond. As physicians and as a society, weve evolved a great deal, but were not at the point, I think, where we can routinely be comfortable with ambiguity. Some families can take that leap, but they are so uncommon.

As our culture progresses, that balance may shift. The sharing of peoples preferred pronouns, encompassing a spectrum of identities beyond he/his and she/hers, is becoming more common. People with transgender, gender nonconforming, nonbinary, and intersex identities are increasingly out and proud.

Ive been very surprised and pleased to see how much has changed in the LGBT arena in the past twenty years, says Garland. Its dramatic worldwide. Acceptance has increased of people with different sexualities and genders.

If trends continue, then in another generation or two, the agitation around DSDs may calm. Doctors may deliver healthy intersex babies and simply say: Congratulations.

Stephanie Dutchen is a science writer in the HMS Office of Communications and External Relations.

Image: Cici Arness-Wamuzky (top); John Soares (Smith and Diamond); John Davis (Rosario)

(Reprinted with permission from the Harvard Gazette.)

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Don't Judge, Wait, and Know the Science: InterSex,The Body and The Self - India New England

The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak has sparked a speedy response, with scientists, physicians, and front-line healthcare professionals analyzing data in real-time in order to share findings and call out misinformation. Today, The Lancet published two new peer-reviewed studies: one which found that the new coronavirus is genetically distinct from human SARS and MERS, related viruses which caused their own outbreaks, and a second which reports clinical observations of 99 individuals with 2019-nCoV.

The first cases of the coronavirus outbreak were reported in late December 2019. In this new study, Nanshan Chen and colleagues analyzed available clinical, demographic, and laboratory data for 99 confirmed coronavirus cases at the Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital between Jan 1 to Jan 20, 2020, with clinical outcomes followed until 25th January.

Chen and colleagues reported that the average age of the 99 individuals with 2019-nCoV is around 55.5 years, where 51 have additional chronic conditions, including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular (blood flow to the brain) diseases. Clinical features of the 2019-nCoV include a fever, cough, shortness of breath, headaches, and a sore throat. 17 individuals went on to develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, resulting in death by multiple organ failure in 11 individuals. However, it is important to note here that most of the 2019-nCoV cases were treated with antivirals (75 individuals), antibiotics (70) and oxygen therapy (75), with promising prognoses, where 31 individuals were discharged as of 25th January.

Based on this sample, the study suggests that the 2019 coronavirus is more likely to affect older men already living with chronic conditions but as this study only includes 99 individuals with confirmed cases, it may not present a complete picture of the outbreak. As of right now, there are over 6,000 confirmed coronavirus cases reported, where a total of 126 individuals have recovered, and 133 have died.

In a second Lancet study, Roujian Lu and their fellow colleagues carried out DNA sequencing on samples, obtained from either a throat swab or bronchoalveolar lavage fluids, from eight individuals who had visited the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, China, and one individual who stayed in a hotel near the market. Upon sequencing the coronaviruss genome, the researchers carried out phylogenetic analysis to narrow down the viruss likely evolutionary origin, and homology modelling to explore the virus receptor-binding properties.

Lu and their fellow colleagues found that the 2019-nCoV genome sequences obtained from the nine patients were very similar (>99.98% similarity). Upon comparing the genome to other coronaviruses (like SARS), the researchers found that the 2019-nCoV is more closely related (~87% similarity) to two bat-derived SARS-like coronaviruses, but does not have as high genetic similarity to known human-infecting coronaviruses, including the SARS-CoV (~79%) orMiddle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) CoV (~50%).

The study also found that the 2019-nCoV has a similar receptor-binding structure like that of SARS-CoV, though there are small differences in certain areas. This suggests that like the SARS-CoV, the 2019-nCoV may use the same receptor (called ACE2) to enter cells, though confirmation is still needed.

Finally, phylogenetic analysis found that the 2019-nCoV belongs to the Betacoronavirus family the same category that bat-derived coronaviruses fall into suggesting that bats may indeed be the 2019-nCoV reservoir. However, the researchers note that most bat species are hibernating in late December, and that no bats were being sold at the Huanan seafood market, suggesting that while bats may be the initial host, there may have been a secondary animal species which transmitted the 2019-nCoV between bats and humans.

Its clear that we can expect new findings from the research community in the coming days as scientists attempt to narrow down the source of the 2019-nCoV.

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Swamp sparrows can guess each other's ages from the sounds of their song - Massive Science

The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak has sparked a speedy response, with scientists, physicians, and front-line healthcare professionals analyzing data in real-time in order to share findings and call out misinformation. Today, The Lancet published two new peer-reviewed studies: one which found that the new coronavirus is genetically distinct from human SARS and MERS, related viruses which caused their own outbreaks, and a second which reports clinical observations of 99 individuals with 2019-nCoV.

The first cases of the coronavirus outbreak were reported in late December 2019. In this new study, Nanshan Chen and colleagues analyzed available clinical, demographic, and laboratory data for 99 confirmed coronavirus cases at the Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital between Jan 1 to Jan 20, 2020, with clinical outcomes followed until 25th January.

Chen and colleagues reported that the average age of the 99 individuals with 2019-nCoV is around 55.5 years, where 51 have additional chronic conditions, including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular (blood flow to the brain) diseases. Clinical features of the 2019-nCoV include a fever, cough, shortness of breath, headaches, and a sore throat. 17 individuals went on to develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, resulting in death by multiple organ failure in 11 individuals. However, it is important to note here that most of the 2019-nCoV cases were treated with antivirals (75 individuals), antibiotics (70) and oxygen therapy (75), with promising prognoses, where 31 individuals were discharged as of 25th January.

Based on this sample, the study suggests that the 2019 coronavirus is more likely to affect older men already living with chronic conditions but as this study only includes 99 individuals with confirmed cases, it may not present a complete picture of the outbreak. As of right now, there are over 6,000 confirmed coronavirus cases reported, where a total of 126 individuals have recovered, and 133 have died.

In a second Lancet study, Roujian Lu and their fellow colleagues carried out DNA sequencing on samples, obtained from either a throat swab or bronchoalveolar lavage fluids, from eight individuals who had visited the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, China, and one individual who stayed in a hotel near the market. Upon sequencing the coronaviruss genome, the researchers carried out phylogenetic analysis to narrow down the viruss likely evolutionary origin, and homology modelling to explore the virus receptor-binding properties.

Lu and their fellow colleagues found that the 2019-nCoV genome sequences obtained from the nine patients were very similar (>99.98% similarity). Upon comparing the genome to other coronaviruses (like SARS), the researchers found that the 2019-nCoV is more closely related (~87% similarity) to two bat-derived SARS-like coronaviruses, but does not have as high genetic similarity to known human-infecting coronaviruses, including the SARS-CoV (~79%) orMiddle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) CoV (~50%).

The study also found that the 2019-nCoV has a similar receptor-binding structure like that of SARS-CoV, though there are small differences in certain areas. This suggests that like the SARS-CoV, the 2019-nCoV may use the same receptor (called ACE2) to enter cells, though confirmation is still needed.

Finally, phylogenetic analysis found that the 2019-nCoV belongs to the Betacoronavirus family the same category that bat-derived coronaviruses fall into suggesting that bats may indeed be the 2019-nCoV reservoir. However, the researchers note that most bat species are hibernating in late December, and that no bats were being sold at the Huanan seafood market, suggesting that while bats may be the initial host, there may have been a secondary animal species which transmitted the 2019-nCoV between bats and humans.

Its clear that we can expect new findings from the research community in the coming days as scientists attempt to narrow down the source of the 2019-nCoV.

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On Holocaust Remembrance Day, the stories of two Jewish scientists - Massive Science

Today is the International Day of Commemoration, in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, where over six million Jews, allies and collaborators were persecuted and murdered by the Nazi regime. Six million is a difficult number to even begin to comprehend, so picture it this way: about two out of every three Jews in Europe were killed in this horrific genocide.

For many Jewish scientists, to practice science publicly in a region ruled by Nazi ideology was a death sentence. No one was exempt from this persecution. These are just two stories of those lost.

Born in Romania, Leonore Rachelle Brecher lived in a vibrant Jewish communities. At age twelve, she went to live with relatives after the death of both of her parents. Brecher went on to study zoology at a university in Chernivtsi, in what's now Ukraine. As her career started gaining traction, she moved to study at the University of Vienna where she defended her doctorate on color adaptation in insect chrysalides.

Applying to her alma matter, Brecher was denied a professorship. She later found employment in Berlin, and then moved through many universities and cities, before being forced back to Vienna in 1930. After the German occupation of Austria, she lost her job at the Vienna Institute for Experimental Biology because of her Jewish faith and began to teach in a Jewish gymnasium.

Like many Jewish European scholars, Brecher applied for refugee scholarship but was denied financial assistance by a British agency as her specialty was deemed too narrow, and rejected by the US because of the limited quota for Romanian immigrants. On 14 September 1942, Brecher was arrested and deported to the Maly Trostinets extermination camp, where she was killed immediately upon arrival.

Ernst Julius Cohen was born in March 1869 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He studied Latin and Greek, before going to pursue a PhD in chemistry, under the supervision of J.H. Van't Hoff, at the University of Amsterdam, where his doctorate was titled "Het bepalen van overgangspunten langs electrischen weg en de electromotorische kracht bij scheikundige omzetting" (Determining transition points by electric way and the electromotor force in chemical conversion). After his defense in 1893, Cohen continued as a researcher, where subsequent positions included serving as a professor of physical chemistry in Amsterdam, and later, the director of a chemical laboratory at the University of Utrecht (until his retirement in 1939).

Ernst Julius Cohen (1869-1944)

By Unknown photographer - Universiteitsmuseum Utrecht

After contributing to the discovery of two tin allotropes (white and gray tin), Cohen was propelled into the spotlight and began lecturing across the US and Europe. Cohen's studies spanned various fields, including electro- and thermochemistry, and was considered as the "greatest of the disciples of Van't Hoff."

Just like Brecher however, Cohen was caught in the Nazi's sweep across Europe. In 1941, Cohen's property was seized. In May 1942, Cohen was obligated to wear the "yellow star" and faced multiple restrictions because of his Jewish faith. In 1943, Cohen was arrested in his own laboratory on the charge of entering a "public" building. His friends' efforts were insufficient to secure his release, and he was deported to a concentration camp at Vught in Holland, but was fortunately released thanks to a plea made by the Council of the Dutch Chemical Society to the S.S. authorities at the Hague. However, troubles slowly continued, and on March 3rd 1944, Cohen was transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he was murdered in the gas chambers.

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My brother has 4% Neanderthal DNA. What does that actually mean? - Massive Science

New Delhi, Jan 24 : Breast cancer in men is rarely seen. It shares many similarities with cancer of the breast in women but there are some important differences too.

Male breast cancer represents between 0.5 and 1 per cent of all breast cancers diagnosed each year. Higher rates of male breast cancer in central and eastern Africa may be related to higher liver infectious diseases that lead to hypoestrogenism.

Dr Kumardeep Dutta Choudhury, Senior Consultant & Head of Department, Dept of Medical Oncology (IOSPL), Fortis Hospital, Noida, shares the facts you need to know about it.

Risk factors associated with breast cancer in men:Genetics and family historyFamily history of breast cancer in a first-degree relative is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer among men. Approximately 15 to 20 per cent of men with breast cancer have a family history of the disease compared with only 7 per cent of the general male population.

The risk is higher with inherited BRCA2 rather than BRCA1 mutations. Other genes which have been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in men are PTEN tumor suppressor gene (Cowden syndrome), tumor protein p53 (TP53; Li-Fraumeni syndrome), partner and localizer of BRCA2 (PALB2), and mismatch repair genes (Lynch syndrome).

Alterations of the estrogen to androgen ratioExcessive estrogen stimulation may be due to hormonal therapies (e.g., estrogen-containing compounds or testosterone), hepatic dysfunction, obesity, marijuana use, thyroid disease, or an inherited condition, such as Klinefelter syndrome may increase risk of male breast cancer.

Primary testicular conditionsTesticular conditions may increase risk of breast cancer in men include orchitis, undescended testes (cryptorchidism), and testicular injury.

PRESENTATION:Male breast cancer has been diagnosed at a more advanced stage than female breast cancer, due to a lack of awareness. They generally present with a painless, firm mass that is usually subareolar, with nipple involvement in 40 to 50 percent of cases. The left breast is involved slightly more often than the right, and less than 1 percent of cases are bilateral. There may be associated skin changes, including nipple retraction, ulceration, or fixation of the mass to the skin or underlying tissues. Axillary nodes are typically palpable in advanced cases.

Most histologic subtypes of breast cancer seen in women are also present in men, men with breast cancer are rarely diagnosed with lobular carcinomas is due to lack of acini and lobules in the normal male breast, although these can be induced in the context of estrogenic stimulation.

TREATMENT:Approach to treatment in men is same as that for women. However, role of breast conserving surgery is limited because of small volume of breast tissue. In hormone receptor-positive disease, we give adjuvant tamoxifen rather than an aromatase inhibitor (AI), because of insufficient evidence to support AI monotherapy for men. If there are contraindications to tamoxifen (e.g., hypercoagulable state), an AI with GnRHa may be administered. AIs do not reduce testicular production of estrogens, that's why GnRHa is administered concurrently with AI. They are treated with mastectomy, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormone therapy.

SURVEILLANCE:Limited data suggest these patients are at an increased risk of a contralateral breast cancer, but absolute risk is low. They are also at risk for secondary malignancies and 12.5 percent may develop a second primary cancer. The most common types were gastrointestinal, pancreas, non-melanoma skin, and prostate cancerPROGNOSIS:Ten-year disease-specific survival rates for histologically negative nodes - 77 and 84 per cent, one to three positive nodes - 50 and 44 per cent and four or more histologically positive nodes - 24 and 14 per cent.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text

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All you need to know about Male Breast Cancer - Prokerala

RECENTLY Ive been searching for a word that describes our present system of government.Liberal democracyisnt quite right (though it has features of both) because the phrase omits too many of its other features: notably, the rise and dominance of cranks, the casual overriding of well-established professional rules, and the imposition of formal and informal censorship on matters of controversy.

All three hang together, and all are dealt with below, but the key one seems to me to be the rise and dominance of cranks. Several people have suggested that the wordidiocracyis the one for which Ive been looking. Its also the title of a clever comedy of a few years back which some commentators predictably argue forecast the presidency of Donald Trump. Its producers have recently coined the witty advert: The film that started as a comedy . . . but became a documentary. Fair play to them. Its a funny movie, now on video. Watch it.

But its not about Trump who, though an infuriating mix of cleverness, boldness, impulsiveness, touchiness and at times mean-spiritedness, is not an idiot, still less a crank. Theyre not the same thing, anyway. An idiot is simply a stupid person. A crank may actually be quite clever, but hes in possession of One Big Idea (or maybe two) that drives him to promote it interminably and with no sense of proportion or practicality.

Cranks have been around in politics a long time, probably always Swift lampoons them as projectors inGullivers Travels but there seem to be more of them around since the rise of ideological politics in the French Revolution and, still more significantly, with the later rise of socialism. Ideological politics are the attempt to use government to implement some ambitious project of human betterment that will avert a vast catastrophe and bring about a new ideal society without greed, inequality, division and other human vices. Both the end of the world and utopia usually figure in ideology, and its sometimes hard to tell them apart.

Crankery figures too. The nineteenth century socialist theoretician Saint-Simon believed that under socialism the oceans would turn into lemonade. That didnt happen because it was fanciful nonsense and, besides, there werent any socialist governments around to give it a try. Stalin was around in Russia by the 1930s, however, and as part of the campaign to improve grain production, he supported applying the cranky anti-scientific theories of the geneticist Trofim Lysenko to agriculture (largely because they fitted in with Marxist ideology). Grain production and Soviet agriculture suffered, but Lysenkos theories remained Soviet orthodoxy until after Stalins death. Scientists who criticised them were dismissed in large numbers and some very distinguished geneticists were imprisoned and executed.

Theres an almost logical progression here. A government claims intellectual authority in some non-political field, genetics, say, or music. Some of its pronouncements run counter to established scientific truths, but they are backed by strong pressuresfrom loss of employment to execution, and the usual professional rules and legal safeguards designed to prevent the spread of quackeries are ignored from a prudent cowardice. And when the crankish policy begins to fail, censorship is imposed and its critics are dismissed, silenced, or worse.

Crankocracy = the rise of bogus experts + the junking of professional standards and legal protections x the repression of objectors.

We might think that with Saint-Simon and Lysenko in our history we would be alert in future to such dangers. Not so.

Marxist socialism is itself one vast exercise in crankery applied to politics, philosophy and economics, and it seems to have a family affection for lesser fallacies. But only thirty years since the collapse of Soviet communism revealed the economic wastelands and the mass graves of its political victims across the USSR, there is now a growing revival of support for socialism/communism/Marxism on the Left and among young people in the Western world.

And any large movement of perverse decadence, which this surely is, will be unlikely to leave other aspects of life alone. When the rules and protections and protections that sustain civilization in one area of life and thought begin to collapse, they knock down others elsewhere just as falling dominoes spread instability across an entire table. As Auden writes inThe Fall of Rome:

Fantastic grow the evening gowns;Agents of the Fisc pursueAbsconding tax defaulters throughThe sewers of provincial towns.

One might argue that in modernity, as in modernism and dominoes, everything is ultimately disconnected from everything else. Let me suggest two areas where crankery has already won significant victories. The first is genderand transgender theory. This holds that someones identity is not determined by his/her biological sex but by his/her gender identity, which may be malleable and is anyway a matter of individual conviction. As one slogan has it: If your boy says shes a girl, then shes a girl.

That seems false to me, but even if it were true, its effects should be limited at least by its own founding theory. Our social interactions with others, whatever their theoretical identities, should always be shaped by courtesy and goodwill, including treating them as they wish within reason. But we would surely not base a transwomans medical treatment on the assumption that her gender identity is a better guide than his biological sex to what they need.

Yet hospitals, schools, colleges and woke corporations do exactly that when they make available tampons to transwomen. Athletic bodies do likewise when they decree that transwomen with male bodies are eligible to play in womens sports, with the predictable result that many able women players who might win in a fair contest are defeated. If this goes uncorrected, it will simply end in the abolition of womens sports.

Admitting transwomen into womens-only safe spaces will similarly end a civilised protection for women in a world that certainly doesnt seem to be becoming less dangerous for them. Above all, as John Whitehall has documented inQuadrant,needless human tragedies and massive lawsuits are hurtling towards us when young people persuaded to undergo transitioning surgery and drug treatments that are life-changing and unalterable at an age when they cannot possibly understand the consequences believe in adulthood they have made a terrible mistake.

In all these cases the major institutions of society have capitulated to aggressive pressure groups pushing a theory that is highly dubious, unsupported by the great majority of clinical researches, regarded by many gays and feminists as a threat to their identities, and above all damaging to its supposed beneficiaries. Not enough attention has been devoted to examining the science behind the activism. A research project on gender-transitioning by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) did not include the control group required by the rules. And as Madeleine Kearns ofNational Reviewhas detailed,when sceptics seek to raise these questions in public meetings, they are shouted down and threatened. Crankery or should it be quackery? is followed by ignoring the rules and enforced by repression.

Its a similar story in the academys history wars, reliant as they are on student rebellions (which in reality are highly conformist) and enforced by riots and iconoclasm. These, too, are a consequence of abolishing the border between truth and falsehood in postmodern scholarship. Of course, truth is sometimes hard to discover and to distinguish from persuasively false interpretations. The answer to that is more work in the archives. For postmodern historical interpretation was refuted in the 1920s by Georges Clemenceau, who led France in the Great War. A young historian kindly explained to him that future historians would re-examine the war from different perspectives and reach different conclusions different from his own. Yes, replied Clemenceau, future historians will say many things I might dispute. But one thing they will not say. They will not say that Belgium invaded Germany.

He may have been too optimistic. Relieved of the obligations of truth and accuracy, students all too often replace research with the pre-cooked conclusions of Marxist Critical Theory, as illustrated by theNew York Times1619 Project,which starts from the conclusion that slavery is the true essence of American history. As historian Richard Brookhiser said when asked about this recently: Two weeks before those first slaves landed, the colony adopted a democratic constitution. No one owns slaves in America today. But were still voting. How often will such rebuttals be heard in colleges in which the administrators as well as the students are striving to decolonise the curriculum, and when in effect both co-operate to close down debates and shut out speakers who might enlighten them. Once again, academic (and media) crankery is followed by, first, throwing overboard the rules of scholarship and, next, by the banishment of heretics.

It might reasonably be objected that not all of these are examples of rule by cranks. In part, thats a fair criticism. The cranks are in the streets; the corridors of power contain the cowards who yield to them. But Im not sure thats much of a comfort. Im getting the queasy feeling that in about five years anyone who has criticised Greta Thunbergs absurd views on the demise of Planet Earth by next Thursday will be up before the magistrates. It seems agreed by all well-meaning people that its a coarse and brutal insensitivity to express any scepticism aboutArmageddon predicted by a child.

All of which is a little odd, not least because the feisty Ms Thunberg is not a child. Shes a young woman of some 17 years, able to vote in progressive jurisdictions, and a rather typical self-righteous adolescent too. Now, it used to be a breach of feminist etiquette to refer to young women as if they were just starting high school. Yet we have not had any feminist complaints that Gretas honorary girlhood is an offensive slight even in these much woker days.

But could you have a better illustration of the coming crankocracy than the assembled leaders of the world nodding solemnly and applauding timidly as a 17-year-old adolescent condemns them angrily for not halting the medieval plague about to descend on them unless they replace their business suits with sackcloth and ashes?

They know their place.

This article first appeared in Quadrant Online on January 19, 2020, and is republished by kind permission.

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Greta and the rise of the crankocracy - The Conservative Woman

Its not even February yet, and Florida panthers are already having a bad year. Three have been killed by vehicles and one by a train in the first two weeks of 2020 alone.

The big cats once ranged across the South but now are mostly found slinking between fragments of habitat in southern Florida. Traffic poses a significant hazard: Last year 23 panthers were killed by vehicles a significant blow to a wild population that hovers precariously at only around 230 animals.

But there likely wouldnt be any Florida panthers today if it werent for decades of work to save them. The story of how Florida panthers, a puma subspecies, were rescued from the brink of extinction is expertly told in the new book Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle To Save the Florida Panther, by journalist and New York Times best-selling author Craig Pittman. Pittmans been tracking the story for 20 years at the Tampa Bay Times.

The cast of characters and wild turns of event in Pittmans book seem like the stuff of fiction. Theres the Stetson-wearing Texas cougar hunter Roy McBride, who becomes a master panther tracker. Veterinarian Melody Roelke rings the alarm on the panthers genetic problems, only to have her male colleagues look the other way. And the arch villain of the story, a biologist nicknamed Dr. Panther, establishes himself as the preeminent expert but is actually fudging his research and colluding with developers.

Pittman traces these and other characters through years of discoveries, mistakes, public backlash and breakthroughs a fledgling program to radio-collar and track the animals that taught important lessons about tranquilizing big cats high up in trees; a failed captive-breeding program; a failed reintroduction plan in north Florida; and a last-ditch effort to bring in new genes by releasing Texas cougars in panther habitat.

The story is tragic, inspiring and deeply poignant. In his prologue Pittman calls it a scientific cautionary tale. As we grapple with mass extinction across the world, he writes, This is a guide to what extraordinary efforts it takes to bring back just one sub-species one thats particularly popular and what unexpected costs such a decision brings.

Pittman talked to The Revelator about the threats that panthers continue to face and what lessons we can learn about saving other endangered species.

When you first started writing about panthers 20 years ago, what did you think about their prospects?

My first stories were around 1998-1999. Nobody knew if the Texas cougar experiment had worked yet. Things looked pretty grim and a lot of developers were proceeding on the understanding that panthers wouldnt be a problem anymore, so it was OK to build in panther habitat.

Things looked dire at that point and it wasnt until around 2001 or 2002 where you started seeing these new kittens being born and thinking maybe things would be OK. The concern then became making sure that the Texas cougar genetics didnt swamp the panther genetics.

We know that panthers arent out of the woods yet. Is there clear science on what would be considered a recovered population?

Ever since scientists drew up the very first recovery plan decades ago, they said the key was to have three [geographically] separate populations of about 250 or 300 panthers. Obviously, were still a long way from that and from even starting a second population. You could call whats going on in central Florida the start of a new population, but theres just a handful of panthers there.If they choose to follow those particular goals, theyre a long way away.

But I phrase it that way because [the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] did not follow their own recommendations when they down-listed manatees [from endangered to threatened]. They didnt follow their recovery plan. They just said, Well, this computer model says its OK, so were going to say its OK, even though the threats are still there.

You know a good bit about manatees, which you wrote about in Manatee Insanity: Inside the War Over Floridas Most Famous Endangered Species. How does the manatees story compare to the panthers?

I call manatees the endangered species you can see, because they will show up everywhere people are theyre in your backyard canal, swimming around your dock. At the time I wrote that book, they were an endangered species, but one that you could see with your own eyes.

Panthers, not so much. Panthers are very elusive. They dont like to be around people. So theyre more of an abstract concept to a lot of folks. People know the panthers exist, but theyve never seen one. So its not quite as personal with panthers.

And the other thing that I wrote about in Manatee Insanity is that the Save the Manatee Club, and specifically its cofounder Jimmy Buffett, came up with this brilliant marketing concept called adopt a manatee, where they took the IDs from a whole bunch of the manatees that the state had been following and, for a contribution of around $5 or so originally, you could adopt a manatee. Youd get a little adoption certificate with the name of your manatee on it and its background.

People became personally invested in the fate of their particular manatee. I was digging through state archives and I saw letters from, you know, Mrs. Johnsons fourth grade class in Mesa, Arizona to the Citrus County Commission saying, Why are you being mean to our manatee and not passing this rule to make boats slow down?

They found a way to make people all over the country care about individual manatees as a way of getting them to care about the species as a whole. Theres no similar project for panthers and generally most of the panthers dont have nicknames like the manatees do.

There are people who absolutely love panthers, mostly in the abstract. And there are some folks who would dearly love to see a hunting season opened on them and feel like the governments lying about how many there are. But I think the majority of Floridians support panthers and are happy that they seem to be coming back.

Your book is a really incredibly in-depth case study of what it takes to save one endangered species. Are there lessons we can learn from it about saving other species?

I like what Melody Roelke said at the point where they started to realize they needed to take action [to save the panthers], it was almost too late to do anything. So her advice was, if you see it heading this way, take action immediately. Dont dawdle around and get into arguments and get mired down in bureaucratic red tape about what youre going to do.

They really were almost too late to save the panther. It basically came down to five female Texas cougars breeding with the remaining male panthers. And had that not worked, that wouldve been it. Theyd probably be gone by now.

The other thing is, if youre going to spend this much money and work this hard to bring back an endangered species, think about whats going to happen afterwards. What are the ramifications going to be? Because as we saw with the captive-breeding experiment that they started and then dropped, they had not planned very well. They had figured out they were going to take these panther kittens out of the wild and breed them in captivity to put [grown] panthers back in the wild, but they hadnt really thought about where they were going to put them and how they were going to train these captive panthers to be OK in the wild.

What are the biggest threats they face now?

The reason I waited so long to write this book is because I needed a good ending and I finally got one. [Editors note: We wont give it away, but its a doozy.]

But just because I found an ending for the book doesnt mean the story of the panther is over. Were now dealing with this mystery ailment thats afflicting some panthers and bobcats, to the point where they cant walk and scientists dont know why.

Weve also got more large development coming down the pike headed for the area [where most panthers live]. In particular theres a proposal backed by the governor who is supposedly pro-environment to build this enormous toll road right through panther habitat, which would bring more development into that area.

One of my colleagues, Lawrence Mower, just wrote a story where wed gotten copies of some emails from Fish and Wildlife Service biologists who study the panthers saying this will just basically be a stake in the heart of panther recovery if you build this toll road through there.

So there are continuing threats, and were a long way from them being considered recovered. But things are looking hopeful in ways they havent for a long time and all because of the very hard work from these folks who labored for years mostly in anonymity because they believed in the cause and they believed that what was going on was something worth devoting their lives to even though it led to burnout and fighting and depression and, in one case, suicide.

In a way, I wrote the book to call attention to the role of those unsung heroes to say, look at what they did, look at the risks that they took, look at the brutal work days they put in trying to figure this out sometimes even against the publics own desires.

Excerpt from:
The Crazy Story of How Florida Panthers Were Saved From Extinction - The Revelator

Companies like Phylos Bioscience are looking to partner with hemp distributors across the nation. Thats why the Portland-based company exhibited at the 2020 Heart of America Agricultural Hemp Classic in Independence, Mo.

Phylos Bioscience is a genetics testing company in the hemp and cannabis space, which identifies male and female plants and also hosts a 3D repository of all the DNA theyve sampled over the years to provide transparency and help farmers to know exactly what they are growing.

Take the time to really do the research on how to grow it, and make sure that whatever variety you do have is actually hemp, said Aaron Jarvis with Phylos.

Jarvis said the company is already working with the Missouri Hemp Association and American Hemp Research, and they intend to develop more partnerships in the days to come.

Listen to Chucks interview with Aaron here: Interview with Aaron Jarvis, Phylos Bioscience

Listen to Aarons presentation here: Presentation by Aaron Jarvis, Phylos Bioscience

2020 Heart of America Agricultural Hemp Classic Photo Album

Original post:
Helping Hemp Farmers to Know What They Grow - AgWired

Ever wonder why the clothes that fit you so well 20 years ago are too small today? Has your size gone from medium to large without you knowing how or why? Well, here is a cockamamie theory to explain such a phenomenon. A theory that makes about as much sense as showing up at one of the big box stores at midnight on Thanksgiving to shop.

A little background first. Before the Industrial Revolution, we used to make our own clothes. Our mothers made our clothes, our fathers watched Ozzie and Harriet reruns. Just kidding. Fathers made guns and tools and tamed horses.

Things changed when industrialization dictated that our clothing would now be made in factories by workers who are paid money. Those workers could be living anywhere, in less developed countries like Sri Lanka or Cambodia, halfway around the world. Now, Im not denigrating any group of people when I write that the average height of men and women of a certain country may be shorter (or to be politically correct, of less height) than those living in more developed countries. It is well known that human growth is limited by poor nutrition and poverty, but genetics play a major role also.

My point is that my shirts started misfitting me at about the time the shirts in the marketplace began to sport labels of manufacture from places like Myanmar and Bangladesh. According to a 2013 study by the University of Oxford, the average height of those inhabitants of Asian origin was 6 inches shorter than those inhabitants of North America and Europe. I discovered this firsthand years ago on a Tokyo subway when I gazed down the length of the train car and saw nothing but the tops of heads. In comparison, I would see a sea of shirt collars on a subway back in America.

In that same report from Oxford, the average height of a Danish man was listed at 183 centimeters (5 feet, 11 inches), tallest in the world, while the average Burmese male comes in at 161 centimeters (5 feet, 5 inches). Scientists know that height and build are dependent on good health, good nutrition and avoidance of poverty, but the most important factor is genetics. If you want to be tall when you grow up, choose tall parents.

So my crazy proposition is that somehow shirts being made by an average Burmese woman from Myanmar are for an average North American male (a full 6 inches taller than the person making it) to wear.

Ive got it in my head that somehow the person sewing the shirt is influenced by the height of the recipient. It may appear to be ridiculous, but so does the idea of the Electoral College. Given my take on the relationship between sewer and sewee, a mens medium shirt made in Samoa would end up the same size as a two-person tent from L.L.Bean. Ill report on that at a future time.

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Over Easy: History of Shopping, part II - Press Herald

Publishing Date : 21 January, 2020

Benson C SailiTHIS EARTH, MY BROTHER

It all began in Orion on a planet of the Suriya star

If we depose that Princes Diana was a direct descendent of Jesus of Nazareth, it necessitates, General Atiku, that we posit a well-buttressed argument that she indeed was such. This, General, is not a profession that can be exhaustively elucidated upon in only one or two articles: maybe three, four, five, six, or even more. As such, I accordingly seek your permission, venerable General, that I do likewise.

I am mindful that you may find this elaborate approach a shade overdone and even somewhat pedantic, but Ill trust to your patience and forbearance anyway. After all, patience is the companion of wisdom and you General constitute a remarkable repository of enormous reserves of both these traits. Not too long ago, General, relatively speaking, I served up a series titled The Jesus Papers. I would like to believe, General, that you followed it avidly and fervidly. Much of what I will say in relation to the divinity of Diana if you will, General, I did enunciate in The Jesus Papers, and to a larger extent in The Earth Chronicles.

If I am obliged to restate the same in the Lady Die context, General, it is only for the sake of that segment of the readership who came aboard the This Earth My Brother bandwagon much later and therefore missed out on the gem that was The Jesus Papers and the inceptual section of The Earth Chronicles narrative. Certainly General, I wouldnt want them to find themselves in a position where they make neither head nor tail of the tale that is being woven before them.

HOLY GRAIL BEGINS WITH ORION

As a keen and voracious all-round reader General, Im sure you will have come across the concept of the Holy Grail elsewhere other than my own writings. In the wider public domain, it first surfaced in a 1982 best-seller, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (sub-titled The Secret History of Christ and the Shocking Legacy of the Grail) by the trio of Henry Lincoln, Michael Baigent, and Richard Leigh.

There were further cherries on the cake by another prolific mystery historian Laurence Gardner. These were Bloodline of The Holy Grail (sub-titled The Hidden Lineage of Jesus Revealed), 1989; Genesis of the Grail Kings (sub-titled The Explosive Story of Genetic Cloning and the Ancient Bloodline of Jesus), 1999; and The Magdalene Legacy (sub-titled The Jesus and Mary Bloodline Conspiracy), 2005.

Barbara Theirings Jesus and the Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls (sub-titled Unlocking the Secrets of His Life Story), 1992, was further food for thought about who exactly the Saviour or Messiah was. But it was The Davinci Code, a 2003, blockbuster, fact-based fictional work that mainstreamed the subject of the Holy Grail into daily parlance, General. Never before, General, had Jesus mortality, as opposed to his divinity, so riveted the attention of a globalwide audience.

All the above works in varying degrees of depth traced the origins of the Holy Grail to either the Anunnaki (Gardner) or Jesus (Theiring and Lincoln & Co). But years before Lincoln & Co put pen to paper, General, Robert Morning Sky had gone much further: in his pocket-sized book titled Eden, Atlantis, and the UFO Myth, he traced the genesis of the Holy Grail to the Orion star system. How so General? And what anyway is this animal called the Holy Grail?

EARTH, A COLONY OF ORION

Over the course of time, the Holy Grail, General, has assumed any number of forms depending on whos telling the story and the juncture in history he or she is specifically highlighting. In the main, it has been characterised as a cup, bow, dish, chalice, goblet, platter, or a stone invested with miraculous powers to heal all wounds, deliver eternal youth, and grant everlasting happiness. But all these, General, are little more than emblems of the real deal. For the fact of the matter, General, is that the Holy Grail is a genetic strain that goes all the way back to the Orion Queen, who resides in a cosmic location ranging from 243 to 1360 light years away.

Permit me at this juncture, General, to restate a cardinal point I adduced in The Earth Chronicles that our planet Earth is not independent: it is a colony, de jure or de facto, of the Sirian-Orion star system. Earth is actually situated on the fringes of the broader Sirian-Orion Empire, the most expansive in the Milky Way Galaxy. The history of Earth, General, begins not here but in the Sirian-Orion star system and even further back in the Lyran star system as we amply demonstrated in The Earth Chronicles.

The term Orion derives from the ancient compound word Ori-An. Orimeant Spirit, that is, the Spirit of the Queen of Orion; Holy; or Master Race; and Anstood for Heaven, that is, the cosmos. Thus Orion was the abode of the Holy Goddess. To the ancients, therefore, Heaven was not a spiritual realm of existence where First Source dwells, the way it is understood in modern-day religion: it was the home of the Mother Goddess primarily. The Mother Goddess was not a spiritual being: she was the Queen of Orion.

In the worlds the beings of Orion conquered, they were referred to as the Alla-An, Arra-An, Ari-An, or Aya-An (varying but related renditions of one of the Orion Queens multiple titles). All these forms of address meant The Holy Ones of Heaven or The Divine of Heaven. It is Ari-An/Alla-An which gives us the words Aryan and Alien, terms ancient Earthlings used for beings from the Orion star system primarily and all ETs in general. The Sumerians, the worlds best-known known civilisation of old, called it Uru-Anna, meaning Crown of Heaven.

Orion, General, is the most significant constellation both astronomically and historically with respect to Earth. Orion has had the most impact and influence on Earth exopolitically as ancient records attest. Only Sirius is second in this regard. Orion is one of the largest constellations in the cosmic expanse. It has more than 300 stars. Its brightest stars are Rigel and Betelguese, whose civilisations have featured prominently in Earths cosmic history. The other significant stars are Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak. These constitute what is known as Orions Belt. It is Mintaka, General, to which the shaft of the Giza Pyramids Queens Chamber is astronomically aligned.

If you do read the Bible at least from time to time, you will be aware, General, that Orion is directly mentioned in the Bible three times in JOB 9:9 (He [God] is the maker of the Bear and Orion), JOB 38:31 (Can you loosen Orion`s belt?), and AMOS 5:8 (He [God] who made the Pleiades and Orion). In the gospels, the three stars on Orions Belt have been allegorised as the Three Wise Men who presented special gifts to baby Jesus. Ancients called the Orion Belt stars as the Three Kings.

The symbology in the Jesus story of the Star from the East (Sirius) and the Three Wise Men (the three stars studding Orions belt) is a veiled message that Jesus had both Sirius and Orion origins. But he was not unique in that way, General: we all have genes of beings from Sirius and Orion.

A SPECIES KNOWN AS KHEBS

The first planet to develop life by way of evolution in the Orion star system General has at times been referred to as the Green World because green is the colour that is generally associated with Reptoids inasmuch as the baseline colour of the worker class of the Reptoid world, the mainstream class, is green. The insect genotype that was the first to dominate its species on the Green World looked like a dragonfly. It also had traits and characteristics of a bee. If it arose on Earth, we would call it a dragonfly-bee. In the ancient records, however, it is referred to as a Kheb.

The Khebs laid their eggs in the ponds. The newly-born Khebs looked like microscopic scorpions, with tiny stingers on their tails and tiny pincer claws on their forelegs. The moment they were born, General, the Khebs went to war with each other. They fought for territory straight from birth and they killed straight from birth very much in keeping with Reptilian humanoids were familiar with here on our planet.

In time, the Khebs left the watery ambience to dwell on dry land but up in the trees. Here, another transformation took place. The Khebsno longer looked like a dragonfly-bee but like a mantis. By then, their outer skins had hardened into a tough shell. How did the Khebs reproduce, General? For ages, they produced asexually, that is, without the involvement of a male Kheb. This was not by choice: the male species had not appeared at this stage. Evolution is such that female creatures appear first. Male creatures follow at a later stage. These are millions of years were talking about General.

KHEB INSECTS BECOME REPTILES

At long last, General, a genetic mutation in the Kheb females caused Kheb males to come into existence. The Kheb species was now able to reproduce sexually. In other words, the Khebs were capable of producing either sexually or asexually depending on their preference or environmental factors such as climate for instance. Remember, General, the Khebshad part-characteristics of bees and bees even in our day produce either way, sexually or asexually. When the eggs are fertilised by male seed (sexual reproduction), they will always produce a female.

When they are not fertilised by male seed (asexual reproduction), they will always produce a male. This is what was happening to the Khebs as well. However, for the Kheb females to produce sexually, General, it necessitated a certain transformation in their internal organs. This change was necessary to permit conception. Before the advent of male Khebs, female Khebs routinely survived on the nectar of plants or the flesh of other insect species. Now they needed to feed on the blood of other creatures. The female Khebshad become vampires, like what malevolent Reptoids (humanoids [beings who look like us] who evolved from a reptile) are today.

As time went by, in billions of years, the Khebs, General, became large, flying reptiles. At this stage, the male Khebs had bony plates all over their bodies and arms and legs, much like the dinosaurs of Earth in the long ago prehistoric eras. They had a ridge of short plates with semi-sharp edges, that began near their forehead, trailed back and over their skull and down their backs, gradually tapering down on their short slender tail (like a Tokoloshe, or sprite in English.). All the while, the Khebs retained the ability to fly.

At some stage, the Kheb reptiles began to branch into several related species. Some specialised as lizards, others as dinosaurs and still others as snakes. It was the latter species, the snake strain, that proliferated on the Green World, General. Even among the snake species, there were branches. Here on Earth, we have more than 3000 snake species. The Green world must have had a similar number of serpent strains too.

KHEB REPTILES BECOME HUMANOIDS

In the course of evolution, General, genetic instructions were such that the Kheb males were physically smaller than the Kheb females. This indeed is true of the overwhelming majority of reptiles: females are typically larger than males. It is only among mammals and birds that males are predominantly larger than females. But there was one major development with the Kheb females on the Green World that was particularly significant, General. A glitch in their physiology rendered them poisonous.

Relates Robert Morning Sky: Something happened to the female Khebs that did not happen to the males. The changes in their bodies that produced the hormones necessary for the production of offspring also produced a fluid that was acidic and highly poisonous to other creatures! The Kheb Reptilian females could protect themselves and their nests by spitting natural venom into the eyes and faces of their victims. A stream of hot acidic fluid that struck the face of an enemy could cause nerve-numbing paralysis or blindness.

If there was an open wound or the venom entered the gullet of the victim, death was almost always certain. And woe be to any enemy that felt the fangs of the female Kheb. The Kheb females were resultantly much more feared than the Kheb males, General. In time, General, the Khebs became the most dominant life form on the Green World. It were the Khebs who became the first humanoid species to evolve on the Green World.

And just as we Earthlings have lost much of the features and traits of the animal from which we evolved, an ape-like creature, the Khebs also lost a great deal of the very distinct Reptilian and insect features of their ancestors. They no longer had scales, for example, and could no longer fly. But unlike us, they were smooth through and through: they didnt have a single strand of hair on their bodies because they evolved from a hairless insect strain which metamorphosed into a hairless serpentine creature (it explains, General, why Enki, the great Anunnaki scientist who genetically engineered mankind into existence from Anunnaki and Ape Man genes [see The Earth Chronicles series] and whose primordial ancestry was Kheb, is always bald-headed and without a beard in every ancient depiction of him that take the form of a statue).

In terms of skin texture, the Kheb race were very much like the Ebens of planet Serpo, who also evolved from a serpentine creature (see Zeta Series). These first Reptoids to emerge on the Green World, General, were known as the Surbah. Surbah is a compound word, with Sur standing for majestic and Bah meaning being. Surbah therefore meant Royal Race. It is the term Surbah which gives us the Sanskrit word sarpha; the Latin word serpens; and the English word serpent.

The serpent race, General, was the first to arise, by way of evolution, in the 9th Passageway of the Milky Way Galaxy, arguably the most lucrative trade route in the cosmos. Let me underline this most pertinent of points General: originally, the term serpent did not mean snake at all. It had a very noble meaning Majestic Race. The snake connotation arose as a slur on that race by the Sirians, the beings of the Sirius star system, just because the Surbah evolved from a snake-like creature. In sum, General, the Surbah evolved from a dragon-fly bee insect to a mantis to a large flying reptile to a snake-like creature to a humanoid.

THE SURIYA STAR

The Surbah, as the first fully sentient beings to evolve on the Green World, were very spiritual General. This is the trend with evolution everywhere in this universe. Why is it like this? Because the first souls to incarnate did so cloaked in predominantly female energy although as spirits they are genderless. Thats why all life begins with females everywhere in the universe. We all know that females are comparatively tender-hearted than males (albeit more gullible than males because they generally think with their emotions than intellect).

They are in fact more spiritual, more affectionate, and way kinder than males. Females are also known to have a facility for communicating with the spirit world. It explains, General, why most psychics are women and the shamans of old were initially women. In the primordial age of the Surbah, life in this counterfeit universe (which was designed by Lucifer) was very much akin to that of the real Heaven, General. It was a kind of Paradise. The ancients referred to this age as the Dar-Ek-Uye, meaning the Primeval Holy Age of the Universe.

Sadly, the historical particulars of this age are not fully chronicled by cosmic historians; only its general tenor and tempo. The relevant history that cascaded down to our Solar System begins in the Omakh, the Age of the Divine Mother. This was the Age of the Orion Queen.It was the age of Ari-Anbeings, as the ancients referred to the Orion civilisation. Now, the ancients, General, did not refer to the Orion constellation as such.

They called it the Shagari Stars, meaning Fires That Drift (shagari being a compound word made up of asa[fiery] + gar [to drift or fly]). Of course we know that stars, also called suns, are fiery at least theoretically and are not stationary: they too drift in their own orbits carrying along their planets with them, just as planets drift in their own orbits carrying along their satellites (moons) with them.

The Shagari cosmic region had numerous stars. From the viewpoint of our planet, astronomers today designate at least 300 as the constellations notable stars, that is, those that can be detected from this distance by virtue of their more pronounced degree of luminosity. However, only ten of the Shagari Stars had planets, and of these ten only seven were the most consequential.

One of the seven most important stars was known as the Suriya star, meaning Star of the Divine One (Suriyabeing a compound word made up of sur[majestic] + Aya[divine or holy]). In the Omakh age, the Divine One was the Orion (Shagari) Queen. It was on one of the planets of the Suriya star, in the Shagari star system and in the Peshmeten the 9thPassage Way of the Milky Way Galaxy that the Serpent race arose, first as the holy Surbah, and over time as the degenerate Ari-An beings, General.NEXT WEEK: THE GREAT MA-MA

Read the original here:
Genesis of the Holy Grail - WeekendPost

SALT LAKE CITY While opioid-related deaths dominate recent headlines, even more people died as a result of drinking alcoholic beverages over the last two decades. During that period, close to 1 million Americans died from alcohol-related causes, as overall consumption rose and drinking patterns changed, according to an analysis of U.S. death certificates from 1999 to 2017 by researchers at the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Alcohol consumption, emergency room visits related to drinking and hospitalizations also increased during that time frame, according to a new study published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

I think that drinking is a huge problem and weve forgotten about alcohol with the attention on opioids. Alcohol kills more. We havent seen it go away, said Dr. Elizabeth F. Howell, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah who is board-certified in addiction psychiatry and addiction medicine.

Women drove most of the increase, though they are still much less likely to consume alcohol than men. Women are, however, drinking at higher rates than they were across all adult age categories in those 20 years, while male drinking patterns were comparatively flat. Death rates involving alcohol, in fact, increased 85% for women, compared to 35% for men.

Men drink a lot more, they drink more often. They drive drunk more, they are injured and die more. They go to the hospital more, said Aaron M. White, lead author on the study and senior scientific advisor to the director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. But women are catching up; the gap is narrowing.

Meanwhile, women are particularly vulnerable to the physical harm associated with alcohol, compared to men, a phenomenon Howell called telescoping. It means that women get in trouble with alcohol faster than men, from getting addicted to developing medical complications because they have less of an enzyme that helps metabolize alcohol. If drinking had a lifespan, she said, it would be 10 years shorter for women.

The institute study points to a growing body of research that shows alcohol in even moderate amounts increases the risk of breast cancer for women. They also face more risk of developing heart or liver disease, alcohol use disorder and other health problems related to drinking.

In 1999, 35,914 death certificates mentioned alcohol. In 2017, the number rose to 72,558. That compares to nearly 70,000 drug-related deaths, including opioids like heroin and fentanyl.

Women ages 55-64 had the highest rate of female alcohol-related deaths, followed by those ages 45-54. The death rate increased for women by 5.2% a year from 2010-2017. In 1999-2010, the annual increase was 2.1%. The highest rate of alcohol-related male deaths is also among those 55 to 64, followed by those 65 to 74.

Experts note that many death certificates dont mention the role of alcohol, though it is relevant. Of drivers who die in crashes with a blood-alcohol level above 0.08%, a level pretty much everyone considers dangerous, White said, fewer than 1 in 5 death certificates list alcohol as contributing.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 1 in 3 deaths from falls involve excessive drinking, but fewer than 2% of those death certificates say it. Its not a nefarious plot; often someone is taken to the hospital and dies hours later. By that time, the alcohol is not detectable during autopsy, White said.

Patterns of drinking also changed in ways that may be surprising. Beer consumption is down. Wine consumption is up. Consumption of spirits went up more than anything, White said.

Industry tracker IWSR said the volume of wine consumption fell slightly in 2019, the first drop since 1994. The Wall Street Journal reported volumes of ready-to-drink products consumed rose 50%, driven by hard seltzers and canned cocktails. Spirits volumes grew 2.3%, helped by mezcal, tequila, cognac, bourbon and other whiskey. Beer continued to decline, falling 2.3%.

While more women and more older women are binge drinking, binge drinking has been decreasing among college students for a few years, dropping most in states where marijuana is legal, according to research from Oregon State University. Marijuana use, not surprisingly, has increased significantly in those states.

Its hard to say what increased marijuana use will bring, said David C. R. Kerr, associate professor of psychological science and a co-author of that study. We know that marijuana use is not totally distinct from other substances.

Binge drinking is clearly linked to harm, though, he said, noting more run-ins with the police, sexual assaults and risky behavior involve alcohol. Known negative outcomes with marijuana include poor motivation, less academic achievement and greater risk for driving accidents.

Amid the shifting trends, theres a bit of encouraging news, if it holds over time, White said: While alcohol use and harm are going up for adults, they are coming down among adolescents particularly adolescent males. Alcohol use has also declined among those college age, again mostly among males, not females, who are more likely to report drinking and being drunk than are males that age.

The greatest increase in drinking is among older non-Hispanic white women.

White believes as baby boomers age, they will continue to bring higher levels of alcohol and drug use with them. He said experts expect increases in harm among older drinkers, but its possible that if younger cohorts arent drinking and harming themselves they could bring a new attitude toward alcohol.

Thats already being seen in different social movements, like Sober October and Dry January. The sober curious are taking a time out from alcohol consumption or eschewing it entirely. Boozeless bars are also becoming popular.

Basically, theyre asking the question, What is this drug again? White said. Why are we drinking it? What do we get from it?

Its too soon to predict the change will hold among those who are younger now, said White. But hes among those hoping that will be the case. Right now, weve got what weve got, which is an increase among adults.

Alcoholism is not determined by how much one drinks, Howell said, but what happens when one drinks, such as loss of consistent control over consumption and continued use of alcohol in the face of adverse consequences.

The biggest risk of becoming alcoholic is genetic, but people dont necessarily know they carry genetic risk. Trauma is a big risk, as well. And the younger one starts drinking the more the risk increases. One can become an alcoholic at any age and studies suggest the share of people becoming alcoholic when they are older is growing.

Chronic excessive drinking doesnt spare any organ system, White said. It triggers inflammation and irritates the stomach lining. It alters the brain. If you just keep doing that over time, the body ends up damaged. Alcohol takes a toll; it is not a nutrient.

Still, he added, its a legal drug for adults as long as they dont break laws. And at low doses, the risks appear to be smaller, though they are not zero. The risk goes up the more you drink.

Howell said some may be able to drink more, others less, without harm. And she notes one little-known risk factor: gastric bypass. People who have had it and drink see greater harm.

Does America have a drinking problem? White ruminates.

Yes, we have a drinking problem that in some ways is getting worse and in other ways is getting better. Its getting worse among adults, especially middle-age and older. Its certainly getting worse among women in general. But the positive component is less drinking among adolescents and young adults. Whether that will lead to fewer problems as they age, we dont know.

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Does the United States have a drinking problem? - Deseret News

Scrolling through your Instagram is often not an easy task. Each day your feed is bombarded by seemingly perfect mirror selfies or poolside pictures, and you cant help but wonder why cant I look like that?

People often compare themselves to what they see online, at school, or in their own homes. In fact, a recent study done by psychiatrists at UCLA report that people today feel worse about their appearance compared to statistics from the 1970s. Similarly, in a schoolwide survey, 64% of respondents feel like they too struggle with body image.

Body image is defined as ones perception of his or her aesthetic body. This being said, one can have either a positive or negative body image. A person who expresses positive body image, body satisfaction, is able to appreciate his or her natural shape and recognize that physical appearance in no way correlates to ones character or value. On the other hand, body dissatisfaction causes a person to develop a distorted vision of oneself.

According to The National Eating Disorders Association, people who feel frustrated with their bodies are more likely to suffer from feelings of isolation, low self-esteem, and depression. Even though there is no single explanation of why eating disorders develop, research identifies body dissatisfaction as the best-known contributor to conditions such as anorexia and bulimia.

In a survey of 100 Brentwood School students, 90% reported that social media was a cause of body image issues, 75% reported that it comes from their peers, 35% from sports, 33% from parents, 20% from their siblings, and 9% named other sources such as stereotypes, magazines, and celebrities.

Upper School counseling department member and psychologist Densise Mahdesian has worked with patients, both inside and outside of Brentwood School, on issues relating to body dissatisfaction.

Restricting food intake is a way people seek to gain control in their lives, Mahdesian said.

Mahdesian also speaks on the genetics of eating disorders.

Its psychology, biology, and social factors, Mahdesian said. Its all combined. People with these diseases tend to have family members who struggle with alcoholism or mood disorders.

With women in particular, body dissatisfaction, is deeply rooted in our historical view of the female body. Since the beginning of time, women have been valued for their bodies dating back centuries. Such a strong emphasis has allowed for the cultural norm to become a sexualized view of a womans body, rather than understanding it as an outlet in which humans sustain life and function.

Even in the present day, these ideals are still apparent. NEDA reported that 40% to 60% of girls who are six to 12 years old already begin expressing concerns about their shape or weight.

Negative body image is an equally serious issue for men. Subclinical eating disordered behaviors, such as binge eating, laxative abuse, and fasting, are about as common in males as they are in females. A more recent pattern among men is the development of Orthorexia the obsessive behavior when seeking a healthier diet.

The hyperfocus on health can easily tip into something very unhealthy as fitness is becoming extremely compulsive, said Director of Upper School Counseling Bryan Anderson.

A major contributor to this rise in body dissatisfaction in men is the movie industry, especially superhero films. For instance, Healthline.com points to the fact that The Marvel Cinematic Universe which tops the list for highest grossing film franchises portrays men with ideal bodies.

In order to be a hero in these movies, men must be muscular. By projecting this message, society is essentially encouraging men to prioritize their physical bodies over their character or mind.

Nearly 70% of Brentwood students surveyed said that they think there is an ideal body type that they should look like.

However, everyone has a different shape based upon their genetic makeup, and that is perfectly alright.

In addition to school counselors, there are multiple resources for students to hold important conversations. One resource is B-Well, Brentwoods first student-run mental health initiative that officially launched this year. In November, B-Well focused on body image. B-Well also provides resources in Schoology regarding body image and eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder.

Other peer-led resources for students include Girl Impact, which can provide a safe space for all students, male or female, to discuss either body satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

Lastly, the Gender Studies course, taught by Upper School Assistant Director Dana Gonzalez, delves into gender-charged topics such as body image. In particular, Gonzalez encourages her students to tackle the language from the best-selling novel, The Beauty Myth, which supports women and young girls perception of their bodies, a profoundly eye-opening experience for her classes.

No matter if you fit the perfect image or not, we should be open to talk about it and get rid of the stigma by making it a part of our everyday conversations, Gonzalez said.

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Opinion: Body image and its presence on school campuses - Los Angeles Times

DURHAM, N.C. -- Few singers reach their sunset years with the same voice they had in younger days. Singing sparrows are no different. Duke University-led research reveals that elderly swamp sparrows dont sound quite like they used to -- nor do they strike the same fear in other males who may be listening in.

Humans are remarkably good at guessing a persons age just by hearing their voice. But this is the first time the phenomenon has been demonstrated in wild animals, said Duke biology professor and study co-author Steve Nowicki.

The findings were published on January 7 in the journal Behavioral Ecology.

During the early spring, a male swamp sparrow stakes out a breeding territory and threatens any male who dares to trespass on his turf. If a potential rival enters another males territory and starts to sing, the resident male says "Get out! by singing back with a rapid weet-weet-weet and flying toward the intruder. Eventually, if all else fails, he attacks.

Previous research by this team showed that male swamp sparrows reach their peak as vocalists at age two, and start to decline after that, singing less frequently and less consistently as they get older.

To find out if other males take note of such changes, the team set up a speaker in the territories of 35 male swamp sparrows in a Pennsylvania marsh and played them 5-minute audio clips of stranger males recorded at age two and again at age 10.

The team measured the birds responses, noting how closely each male approached the speaker. They found that males approached seven feet closer when they heard a potential rival singing at age two. This suggests that males are more aggressive towards younger-sounding rivals.

Males in their prime pose an obvious threat: if a resident male isnt assertive, theres a good chance that the other guy could steal his mates, said first author Matthew Zipple, a doctoral student at Duke. But apparently the song of a 10-year-old -- a centenarian in bird years -- doesnt warrant getting as worked up over.

If decreases in song quality in later life reflect the inevitable consequences of physical decline, the researchers believe that such changes could indicate to other males that a once-formidable male is no longer a match.

Whether song changes after mid-life make males more or less attractive to females is still unknown. One interesting question would be, is the equation a little different from the females point of view? Nowicki said.

Males accumulate genetic mutations in their sperm as they age that could make them less desirable mates. On the flip side, Nowicki said, The mere fact that hes lived this long means he must be doing something right.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (IBN-0315377) and Duke University.

CITATION: "Sounds of Senescence: Male Swamp Sparrows Respond Less Aggressively to the Songs of Older Individuals," Matthew N. Zipple, Susan Peters, William A. Searcy, Stephen Nowicki. Behavioral Ecology, Jan. 7, 2020. DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arz218.

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Male Sparrows Are Less Intimidated by the Songs of Aging Rivals - Duke Today

Because the queen was just as likely to be executed in both colonies, it showed that by mating with two males the queen actually doubled her chance of being executed.

Francis Ratnieks, Professor of Apiculture (beekeeping) at the University of Sussex, said: By studying test colonies, we found that queen stingless bees will have an increased chance of being executed by the workers in their colony if they mate with two males instead of the one male they normally mate with.

The reasons for this are fairly complex, but in short, it is due to the genetics of sex determination in bees and the risk of what is known as 'matched mating'.

The project tests a long standing idea of mine that if stingless bee queens mate with two males instead of one that it will increase their chances of being executed. It was quite satisfying that an idea that was thirty years old could finally be tested, especially when the hypothesis was found to be correct, Prof Ratneiks added.

The study, published in theAmerican Naturalist, helps biologists to understandwhy some species mate with multiple males, while others only remain with one.

The Honey Bee, which can be found in parts of the UK, is a species known for its queens mating with between ten and twenty males.

Queen stingless bees are closely related to honeybees and bumblebees, but are found in tropical climates such as Brazil.

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Queen bees more likely to be executed by their workers if they mate with multiple males, research shows - The Telegraph