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Hey Thoughty2 here.
At some point, I’m sure many of you have seen a list of the famously non-relevant interview
questions asked at Google.
Things like “How much would you charge to wash every window in Seattle?”
This is obviously a stupid question because no one would pay you as it never stops raining
in Seattle, like…ever.
Another question on the list is this: Imagine a country where everyone only wants boys so
if a couple have a girl, they have another child.
If they have a boy, they stop.
What is the proportion of boys to girls in the country?
A difficult question, and there’s a lot of debate over the correct answer, but most
people come to the conclusion that the answer is a 50/50 mix of boys and girls.
But what we want to ask today is; do you really have a 50/50 chance of having a boy or a girl?
Are there any genetic or environmental factors that can affect it?
And, is there really such a black and white, or should I say blue and pink, difference
between the genders?
So in the words of some woman who likes to stick meat on her dresses, why was I born
this way?
Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes and 22 pairs are the same for men and women.
The 23rd pair though are the sex chromosomes and women have two X ones, whereas men have
an X and a Y, where the Y is much smaller than the X.
The X chromosome has over 2000 genes in it while the Y has just 78.
But before you start thinking that women have cheated by sneaking in a few thousand extra
genes to play with; very soon after fertilization, one of the pair of X genes in women almost
completely deactivates so we all end up with a similar number.
For the first few weeks as a fetus, male and females are basically the same.
Then, the genitals go their separate directions but although we see the equipment down there
as being very different, it’s more similar than you think.
The *** become either *** or ovaries, the phallus becomes either a *** or a ***,
which actually extends a few inches, it’s just internal.
And the *** and *** are pretty similar bits of skin, just with a different… um…
let’s say; origami.
It takes until the 16th week of pregnancy or later, when we can peer in and see what
sex a baby is and realise that we have to return all the pink dresses we bought.
So when you see how genitalia develop, you realize that it’s possible that they may
not develop fully in one direction, since they start as pretty similar stuff.
Depending on the definition, between 0.1% and 1.7% of people are born biologically “intersex”
since their anatomy doesn’t fall strictly into one category or the other, it lands somewhere
in the middle.
It’s also possible to have XX and XY chromosomes.
There’s even a very rare condition where the Y chromosome gets tagged on to one of
the XX chromosomes.
Many of these outcomes are rare because it’s very likely they won’t be able to reproduce,
so the characteristics don’t get passed on.
If only the same could be true for people who recline their seat on planes; I think
we would all like the seat recliner gene to be deleted from the population.
Alright, that’s the development part and all the dangly bits out of the way.
But how do the cells of ‘you’ initially settle on their XX or XY combination?
Do the *** and egg arm wrestle for it?
If you hang a picture of Vin Diesel above the bed does this increase your chances of
having a boy?
Right now, globally, the sex ratio is 107 boys for every 100 girls.
The gender is decided by the ***.
A man produces 2 different *** cells; one contains an X chromosome and the other contains
a Y chromosome so if the X fertilizes the egg, you get a girl and if it’s the Y, it’s
a boy.
If it’s the Z chromosome then you get a wizard, congratulations.
As the X and Y contain different amount of genes, like we mentioned before, this means
that the X *** is actually 1.03 times heavier than the Y.
The Y *** is known to be more mobile but the X has a longer lifespan so it’s possible,
although not proven, that increased gravitational pressure during and just after sex, could
have some influence on the baby’s gender.
So make sure try sitting a bit differently if you’ve already engraved “Jessica”
onto the crib.
There are many myths out there about how you can influence the gender outcome, from what
point of ovulation you have sex at, to the type of breakfast cereal you eat, but nothing
reliable has ever been proven.
The reason almost all species end up with a 1:1 sex ratio is down to a thing called
Fisher’s Principle.
Imagine there are less male births than female, this would mean that a newborn male will have
more people to mate with than a new born female.
So any parents that have a tendency to produce males will end up with more grandchildren.
But then this tendency will spread and soon the ratio will change so the benefit of producing
males stops.
It’s really only colony species such as ants and bees where this ratio doesn’t apply.
In bees, it’s controlled by a fertilized egg being female and an unfertilized one being
male.
Females who are not destined for the queenhood are also fed a restricted diet so their reproductive
organs don’t develop.
It’s the same reason why Prince Harry was fed exclusively on pop tarts, poor lad.
Fisher’s Principle is just a natural balancing act but, surprisingly, there are environmental
factors that can alter the human sex ratio for the population in an area.
Ralph Catalano, a Berkley professor, published a report that said the ambient temperature
would change the ratio and a 1 °C rise would create 1 in 1000 extra boys.
Another well-established phenomenon is that after a war, the birth rate of males noticeably
increases, as if the great galactic accountant is trying to balance the books.
But how is this possible?
Our genes can’t see all that extra space around the locker room and think “right,
it’s man-making time”.
Well, Dr Corry Gellatly suspects it’s still all down to the Fisher Principle.
If you are a man from a family with more brothers than sisters that means you probably produce
more Y *** than X; you’re a man-making-machine.
If you family is mostly sisters, then you’ve likely got more X ***; you’re a female
factory.
When a major war comes and all the men get shipped out to battle, a family with more
brothers has a greater chance of having at least one son return alive, so there is a
bigger proportion of Y-*** bias in the lads who finally return when the war is over.
That’s all life is really; *** and statistics.
Of course, no matter what the sex of a new born baby, over their lifetime, they are going
to produce about 600 large cans of garbage and over 10 million liters of waste water.
So maybe there are enough Dave’s and Sarah’s in the world, and I wouldn’t mind finding
a seat on the train every now and then, so perhaps you should just adopt a cat instead.
Thanks for the view, subscribe for more Thoughty2.