Between XX and XY


Book Description

Providing a fascinating look at the science of sex and what makes people male or female, this book explains dozens of intersex conditions—such as hermaphroditism, Klinefelter syndrome, and androgen insensitivity syndrome—and includes personal interviews with people living with these conditions telling their surprising and often heart-wrenching stories. Even doctors and scientists are not entirely sure if external genitalia, internal sex organs, chromosomes, DNA, environment, or some combination define a person's sex, but this examination shows that sex is not an either-or proposition: not girl/boy, XX/XY—there are babies born XYY, XXX, or with any dozen or more known variations in the X or Y chromosomes. The history and the current treatment for intersex conditions as well as the options that are available today for the ambiguous child are covered in this captivating account that truly shows what it means to be human.




Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health


Book Description

It's obvious why only men develop prostate cancer and why only women get ovarian cancer. But it is not obvious why women are more likely to recover language ability after a stroke than men or why women are more apt to develop autoimmune diseases such as lupus. Sex differences in health throughout the lifespan have been documented. Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health begins to snap the pieces of the puzzle into place so that this knowledge can be used to improve health for both sexes. From behavior and cognition to metabolism and response to chemicals and infectious organisms, this book explores the health impact of sex (being male or female, according to reproductive organs and chromosomes) and gender (one's sense of self as male or female in society). Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health discusses basic biochemical differences in the cells of males and females and health variability between the sexes from conception throughout life. The book identifies key research needs and opportunities and addresses barriers to research. Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health will be important to health policy makers, basic, applied, and clinical researchers, educators, providers, and journalists-while being very accessible to interested lay readers.




The Better Half


Book Description

A Guardian Book of the Week Longlisted for the PEN / E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award An award-winning physician and scientist makes the game-changing case that genetic females are stronger than males at every stage of life Here are some facts: Women live longer than men. They have stronger immune systems. They're better at fighting cancer and surviving famine, and even see the world in a wider variety of colors. They are simply stronger than men at every stage of life. Why is this? And why are we taught the opposite? To find out, Dr. Sharon Moalem drew on his own medical experiences - treating premature babies in the neonatal intensive care unit; recruiting the elderly for neurogenetic studies; tending to HIV-positive orphans in Thailand - and tried to understand why in every instance men were consistently less likely to thrive. The answer, he discovered, lies in our genetics: two X chromosomes offer a powerful survival advantage. With clear, captivating prose that weaves together eye-opening research, case studies, diverse examples ranging from the behavior of honeybees to American pioneers, as well as experiences from his personal life and his own patients, Moalem explains why genetic females triumph over males when it comes to resiliency, intellect, stamina, immunity and much more. He also calls for a reconsideration of our male-centric, one-size-fits-all view of medical studies and even how we prescribe medications - a view that still sees women through the lens of men. Revolutionary and yet utterly convincing, The Better Half will make you see humanity and the survival of our species anew.




Selling Vision: The X-XY-Y Formula for Driving Results by Selling Change


Book Description

A groundbreaking approach to selling in a world demanding change Leaders, sales managers and professionals have found themselves stuck at a crossroads between the past and the future of selling, and they need a roadmap to help them embrace the challenges they face at such a critical juncture. Selling Vision is a step-by-step guide to creating and selling change. By implementing new change management strategies into their unique X→XY→Y selling methodology, the authors: · Propose a new logic for thinking about and executing major sales transformations · Examine these transformations from the customer’s perspective and how their changing buying patterns suggest a particular way of focusing selling activities · Consider the perspective of salespeople and what they can do to sell change to their customers · Look at how sales leaders and managers can change the way their organizations sell products or services · Highlight the pivotal moments that determine the success of major change initiatives Based on their unique X→XY→Y selling methodology, Schachter and Cheatham provide a proven sales strategy to help any sales leader, manager, or professional. For sales leaders, their approach provides a path for transforming the sales organization. For sales managers, it describes how to inspire change in the behavior of salespeople. And for salespeople, it offers a new way of selling that will have a dramatic impact on their performance. For any business executive, Selling Vision provides a faster path to driving change. This book provides immediate actions you can take and experiments you can conduct to find the right direction for future sales efforts at any level of an organization. How you respond to changing sales dynamics will determine your company’s success, that of your customers, and, to a great extent, your own personal career goals and future.




Sex Itself


Book Description

Human genomes are 99.9 percent identical—with one prominent exception. Instead of a matching pair of X chromosomes, men carry a single X, coupled with a tiny chromosome called the Y. Tracking the emergence of a new and distinctive way of thinking about sex represented by the unalterable, simple, and visually compelling binary of the X and Y chromosomes, Sex Itself examines the interaction between cultural gender norms and genetic theories of sex from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present, postgenomic age. Using methods from history, philosophy, and gender studies of science, Sarah S. Richardson uncovers how gender has helped to shape the research practices, questions asked, theories and models, and descriptive language used in sex chromosome research. From the earliest theories of chromosomal sex determination, to the mid-century hypothesis of the aggressive XYY supermale, to the debate about Y chromosome degeneration, to the recent claim that male and female genomes are more different than those of humans and chimpanzees, Richardson shows how cultural gender conceptions influence the genetic science of sex. Richardson shows how sexual science of the past continues to resonate, in ways both subtle and explicit, in contemporary research on the genetics of sex and gender. With the completion of the Human Genome Project, genes and chromosomes are moving to the center of the biology of sex. Sex Itself offers a compelling argument for the importance of ongoing critical dialogue on how cultural conceptions of gender operate within the science of sex.




X, Y and Z


Book Description

December, 1932 In the bathroom of a Belgian hotel, a French spymaster photographs top-secret documents – the operating instructions of the cipher machine, Enigma. A few weeks later a mathematician in Warsaw begins to decipher the coded communications of the Third Reich and lays the foundations for the code-breaking operation at Bletchley Park. The co-operation between France, Britain and Poland is given the cover-name 'X, Y & Z'. December, 1942 It is the middle of World War Two. The Polish code-breakers have risked their lives to continue their work inside Vichy France, even as an uncertain future faces their homeland. Now they are on the run from the Gestapo. People who know the Enigma secret are not supposed to be in the combat zone, so MI6 devises a plan to exfiltrate them. If it goes wrong, if they are caught, the consequences could be catastrophic for the Allies. Based on original research and newly released documents, X, Y & Z is the exhilarating story of those who risked their lives to protect the greatest secret of World War Two.




The Evolution of Sex Determination


Book Description

Sexual reproduction is a fundamental aspect of life. It is defined by the occurrence of meiosis and the fusion of two gametes of different sexes or mating types. Sex-determination mechanisms are responsible for the sexual fate and development of sexual characteristics in an organism, be it a unicellular alga, a plant, or an animal. In many cases, sex determination is genetic: males and females have different alleles or different genes that specify their sexual morphology. In animals, this is often accompanied by chromosomal differences. In other cases, sex may be determined by environmental (e.g. temperature) or social variables (e.g. the size of an organism relative to other members of its population). Surprisingly, sex-determination mechanisms are not evolutionarily conserved but are bewilderingly diverse and appear to have had rapid turnover rates during evolution. Evolutionary biologists continue to seek a solution to this conundrum. What drives the surprising dynamics of such a fundamental process that always leads to the same outcome: two sex types, male and female? The answer is complex but the ongoing genomic revolution has already greatly increased our knowledge of sex-determination systems and sex chromosomes in recent years. This novel book presents and synthesizes our current understanding, and clearly shows that sex-determination evolution will remain a dynamic field of future research. The Evolution of Sex Determination is an advanced, research level text suitable for graduate students and researchers in genetics, developmental biology, and evolution.




X & Y Chromosomal Variations


Book Description

This is the first book on X and Y chromosomal disorders to address these common but rarely diagnosed conditions. This book seeks to present the latest in research and clinical care addressing neuroimaging, the interaction between hormones, brain development, and neurodevelopmental progression. This book will primarily focus on 47, XXY (Klinefelter syndrome, or KS), 47, XYY (Jacobs' syndrome), and 47, XXX (Triple X). More variant disorders such as 48, XXXX, 48, XXXY and 49, XXXXY will be discussed. Topics of interest include neurological functioning, neuroimaging, social language, and the evolving perspectives of these XY chromosomal disorders. The effects of testosterone supplementation in males with 47, XXY will also be examined.




The Biology of Reproduction


Book Description

A look into the phenomena of sex and reproduction in all organisms, taking an innovative, unified and comprehensive approach.




Faith, Madness, and Spontaneous Human Combustion


Book Description

Provides an exploration into how science has shaped our identity by examining the elements of our immune systems such as the thymuses, bone marrow, and lymph nodes to show how they define us in extremely individual ways, and reveals how faith and love are in fact programmed into our genes.