Women: The Crazy Sex

How I love to pull the old bait and switch with a science story, especially with a double entendre. Sorry, I won't be talking about some new love making positions or make inflammatory remarks about bizarre behavior in females. Today's story concerns the latest results of the great Human Genome Project.

It appears that the X and Y chromosomes, the ones that dictate sex, contain some pretty significant clues to human behavior and evolution. As a refresher, women typically contain two X chromosomes and men an X and a Y. The Y chromosome, to the amusement of many misandrists, I'm sure, has really become nothing more than a lazy bum. Eroded by mutation over the centuries, it contributes very little to the make up of little boys, except that the eggs have to fend for themselves.

The X chromosome is where all the action is. It contributes 10 times as much genetic information as the lazy beer-drinkin', nascar-watchin' Y and because females have two copies, there is less chance that something gets translated incorrectly. It's one of the reasons why women are born at a higher rate (51%). However, the process of deactivating the second copy of X (so that women do not have twice the genetic activity as male embryos) does not proceed perfectly. In some 15% of genes due to be inactivated, the female embryo gets a double dose. In another 10% due to be activated missed the activation boat entirely. Further, these activation mistakes don't appear to be the same in each woman, leading to a high degree of genetic activity variability.

All this has some impact on the words of the unfortunate Larry Summers, the beseiged Harvard Dean. He submitted many reasons for why women do not turn up in the science fields, one of which was genetic. He may or may not be right. From a purely academic point of view, we ought not inactivate our minds to the scientific results and its implications, all its implications. Nor should we become slaves to actions of our beings on a microscopic level.