BIOLOGY OF SEX (BIO 213)
Supplements
Written Reports:
Two written reports are to be submitted throughout the semester, each for the equivalent of one quiz grade. I expect you to write your own report but I encourage you to discuss topics with me and your classmates. The report should be no less than 2 pages but not longer than 5. The font should be between 10-12. Try to base your report on more than just emotions, your cultural or gender views, or stereotypes. This course is called the Biology of Sex so you must incorporate into your report what you learned about the biology of the topic. You can draw on information from class lectures and/or the textbook but you must cite them properly within the paper. I am more impressed with quality than quantity of your pages. Spelling and grammar will count!! The assignments are due at the start of lecture on the days (usually a Thursday) as stated in the syllabus.
The reports can be based on either:
1. A critical review of a reading assignment of your choice. The article must be one that you're already been assigned to read because we talked about that topic in class. The reading articles are listed on the website (Lecture Supplements page) and can be downloaded directly or they are on reserve at the library. For this kind of report you must inlcude the title of the article, what journal it was published in (if given), and the author (if listed). You must summarize the main points given in the article, and then explain how those points relate to or demonstrate a topic discussed in class. Some of these articles might present controversial information and I don't subscribe to any particular viewpoint. To end your report you can discuss your own viewpoint on the topic based on what you have learned.
2. A report on a multimedia subject. For this kind of report you can evaluate a commercial, television show, movie, music video, popular song, or other form of media for its portrayal of the Biology of Sex in mass media. You must explain to me the content of the article or media subject (don't assume I've seen it or know of it), and then tell me specifically how that content pertains to or demonstrates a topic we have covered in class.
[Remember my examples of this technique when I discussed the Axe Body Spray commercial and the "My Humps" video? This is what I mean by this assignment. Be creative! Let's see what YOU can come up with!]
For anyone interested, here is a link to a PDF of my article on the effects of nitrate on ovarian steroid production in frogs.
Journal of Herpetology, V41 (No.4) Pp.590-596.
Link to Inflammatory
Breast Cancer Video
(http://www.komotv.com/ibc)
Why
Sex?
Why is it that humans and many other organisms
have evolved the use of sexual reproduction to pass on their genes when
there is ample evidence that asexual reproduction works extremely well for
other organisms. What are the benefits and costs of sexual versus asexual
reproduction? Click HERE
for a link to The Advantages of Sex on the Why Sex
series available online by PBS.
The Trouble With Sex
What is the value of sexual reproduction when so many organisms
apparently have been successful at asexual reproduction? If sex is not necessary
for reproduction why do we do it, evolutionarily speaking? See some theories
on the value of sexual reproduction summarized in the New Scientist article,
"The
Trouble With Sex".
Ovarian Transplants Lead to New Hopes for Infertility Problems
CNN reports on an
incredible advance in reproductive technology. A pioneering study published
in The New England Journal of Medicine details how a baby
is born to a woman who had fertility restored via the transplant of ovarian
tissue from her identical twin. Click
HERE
for more on this story.
Biology and Bad Dads?
Click HERE for
a PDF to read about how hormones influence male parental care and bonding
with offspring. This summary article was published in New Scientist
(Feb 3, 2005) and the original full length article is published by Leven
et al. (2005) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
The Nose Knows
Does how you smell determine your attractiveness
to others, whether you are gay, straight, or bisexual? Click HERE
to read more about it. Furthermore, the effect of pheromones on sexual attraction
does not diminish with age as results of a new study on seniors shows. Click
HERE
for more on pheromones and seniors.
Click HERE for information on how pheromones cause menstrual synchrony
in women that live together.
| Brain
Scans Not Fooled by Fake Orgasms Remember that movie When Harry Met Sally? Meg Ryan became famous for her scene in restaurant where she vividly demonstrates to Harry how women can fake an orgasm without a man knowing it. Well Meg, the jig is up! Women might be able to fool men but they can't fool a brain scan. A recent CNN report summarizes research on how the brain responds to a real versus simulated orgasm. Click HERE for the more on this story. |
 |
Poor
Body Image a Risk for Teen Suicide
CNN reports on a study showing that suicidal impulses and attempts are much
more common in teens with a poor body image regardless of how much they
actually weigh. Click HERE
for more on this story.
New
Hopes for Infertility.
Click HERE
to read more from a CNN Special Report about Fighting Infertility.
The report highlights medical options that offer
help for couples trying to start a family.
Risks
For Women Using the Birth Control Patch?
Click HERE
to view the CNN video of Dr. Sanjay Gupta reporting on the possible
risks for women using the Ortho Evra Patch for birth control (posted July
26)
| Chemical
Gender Benders A study published in Environmental Health Perspectives (volume 113, No. 10, pp 1295-1298) documents that twice the number of girls to boys are being born in the Aamjiwnaang community of Ontario, Canada. The Aamjiwnaang live near the Sarnia-Lambton Chemical Valley where high levels of hexachlorobenzene (HCB), which also has hormone-disrupting properties, have been found in the local soil. The chemical complex is also emitting phthalates, another reported gender bending chemcial. For more information on the endocrine-disrupting properties of phthalates, read the summary below. |
 |
Gender
Bending: Plastics Make it Possible?
Phthalates are a chemical used to make plastic products flexible.
Unfortunately phthalates in plastic products have managed to find their
way into the bloodstream of pregnant women and children and have been wreaking
havoc with the normal development of male children. Mothers having high
blood concentrations of phthalates had sons with a smaller penises and shorter
anogential distances than sons from unexposed mothers. A prominent endocrinologist
Frederick vom Saal of the University of Missouri-Columbia said ..."If you
see this, you're very likely to see every other aspect of masculinisation
changed too." Click HERE
to read the summary of this research in New Scientist.
Endocrine-Disrupting
Contaminants and the Future of Human Reproduction
Click HERE
for a review in New Scientist.
