Dr. Sperm

A professor from a midwestern university has derived an approach in teaching reproductive biology without making the s*x of individuals bianary male/female. I strongly recommend a similar approach for other teaching reproductive biology.

“The last few years I’ve been working on ways to talk about “male” and “female” when teaching biology. I mean, of course I also give the lecture about s*x and gender and how neither is binary and how both are biological and the dimensions in which they can be biological—from external to internal anatomy, neurology, endocrinology, chromosomes, gene expression, genetic sequences. Each of these contributes in different ways to both s*x and gender, and both are a spectrum, and any individual’s place in the spectrum can’t be predicted from any one or more of these variables.

Students have universally appreciated it.

But when teaching genetics and also physiology, I often need to just use the terms “male” and “female” and have them mean concrete and binary things. Years ago I would just explain to the class that for this topic, I would be using the words in this way to not distract from the lesson’s purpose

But over the past few years I have done a lot of reflecting on it as I write worksheets (which helps!) and gotten more disciplined in just prefacing the terms with an adjective about the dimension I’m using, like “chromosomally male,” or “anatomically female.” That really doesn’t add any extra time.

And I’ve managed to mostly cut out the social terms like “father” and “daughter.” When I’m doing s*x-linked genes, I don’t say, “What percentage of sons have hemophilia?” I say, “What percentage of XY offspring have hemophilia?”

Unexpectedly, and gender biology aside, this seems to be making the concept of s*x-linked genes a little easier for the students.

It’s still a work in progress, and when there is a human context to a problem I may still use gendered language to talk about specific hypothetical individuals. But to my fellow biologists—I encourage you to try it instead of just putting a disclaimer at the front.”

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/semen-invisible-ink/

Did Capt. Cu***ng Suggest Semen as Invisible Ink in WWI? And don't forget about Dr. Condom, too.

The American Journal of Public Health recently published a special supplement, sponsored and edited by NIOSH, with 15 articles focusing on health worker mental health. Read more on the NIOSH Science Blog: https://bit.ly/48hWo2z

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In honor of Diarmaid Douglas-Hamilton, our beloved cofounder and CTO, we are happy to announce the CRB Diarmaid Douglas-Hamilton Memorial Scholarship Award from the College of Reproductive Biology! 🔬🧫🥼

Beginning in 2024, the CRB Diarmaid Douglas-Hamilton Memorial Scholarship Award will be presented annually to two AAB/CRB members to assist with expenses associated with participating in the annual CRB Symposium/AAB Conference educational program (may include transportation/hotel/meeting registration.)

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S***matorrhea

S***matorrhea: When Male Hysteria Over Seminal Leakage Hit Victorian England One of the worst times to be a middle-class white guy in Britain.

Moneypox in semen

WHO looking into reports of monkeypox virus found in semen Scientists recently detected viral DNA in the semen of a handful of monkeypox patients in Italy and Germany.