reproduction
pharyngula | January 17, 2010Warning: Explicit Sex Video involving Tentacles ahead!
Warning #2: Really Cheesy Narration ahead, too!
pharyngula | December 19, 2009What kind of idiot decided to put this poll on CNN?
Should information about women who get abortions be posted online?
No 93%
Yes 7%
What kind of information are they thinking of? Home addresses, phone numbers, that sort of thing?
If you read the associated article, you discover that an even bigger idiot in the Oklahoma senate, Todd Lamb, wants women in his state to fill out a 10-page, 37-question questionnaire before allowing them to get an abortion, and that information would be published online.
It's good to see the poll is going the right way, but jebus…this is another low in the long…
pharyngula | September 23, 2009This is a side of women I haven't had a chance to see in such detail before — it's a series of photos of the cervix, taken every day over the course of a month. It changes, unsurprisingly. It's a little organ with a different personality every time you look at it.
There are also photos of the cervix before and after sex, which is a physiological phenomenon that also changes the configuration of that whole muscley flexible bit of the anatomy. However, she talks about the upsuck hypothesis — the idea that the activity of the cervix is adapted to physically draw semen into the opening — which is…
pharyngula | September 17, 2009A recent survey that correlated the degree of fundamentalism, as measured by positive responses to questions about the absolute, literal truth of the Bible, and teenage birth rates, has discovered something we all suspected all along: fundie kids are getting pregnant despite their stern, restrictive upbringing. There are caveats, of course, and some implied messages here.
However, the results don't say anything about cause and effect, though study researcher Joseph Strayhorn of Drexel University College of Medicine and University of Pittsburgh offers a speculation of the most probable…
pharyngula | September 16, 2009It turns out that there are a few simple rules to follow when submitting your computer dating form.
Around 42 per cent of messages which included the word "atheist" achieved replies, significantly higher than the average response rate of 32 per cent.
References to "Christian", "Jewish" and "Muslim" boosted a message's success rate only marginally, while mentioning "god" in a first approach actually discouraged people from replying.
So just maybe, being godless will increase your fitness in this next generation. Although, given the growing reputation of Christianity, it might just be a…
pharyngula | September 15, 2009I'm very disappointed in Australia. Here I thought it was the kind of place where individuality was valued, and there was some good old rugged common sense to the people. But then I read this ghastly story.
In short, Tegan Leach gets pregnant at the age of 18, she and her boyfriend sensibly realize they are too young to be having children, and she obtains some RU486 to induce an abortion. That's smart and practical, although it would have been better if she'd gotten the assistance of a health care professional to monitor the situation.
Apparently, that wasn't an option. Doctors refuse to…
pharyngula | July 16, 2009A certain professor of midwifery thinks labor pain is good for women: it's a "purposeful, useful thing which has a number of benefits, such as preparing a mother for the responsibility of nurturing a newborn baby."
Here's the best reply ever to that.
jchosy | July 14, 2009According to a paper to be released in the September issue of the journal "American Naturalist", the number of sperm a male ejaculates may be correlated to his attractiveness as measured by the females in the population. The idea came forth after scientists at University College London and the Oxford University mathematically modeled the optimal "sperm load" to maximize daddiness across a range of mating patterns. The research, which took place late one Friday night at the corner bar, was one of several proposed ideas to "settle a bet" between two of the scientists.
The results suggest that…
pharyngula | July 10, 2009William Saletan highlights an interesting study in reproductive biology.
In a paper presented to the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, Dr. David Greening, an Australian infertility expert, reports that 81 percent of the men in his study significantly improved their sperm quality, as measured by DNA fragmentation, through a simple one-week program.
The program was so easy that even the average guy could follow it. According to a summary of the study, "The men were instructed to ejaculate daily."
He presents it as a conflict for religious organizations like the Catholic…
scicurious | July 2, 2009Ok, I'll admit, this post is kind of stolen from the fabulous Ed Yong of Not Exactly Rocket Science, who just won the Association of British Science Writers' Best Newcomer award! Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, Ed. :)
Well, the post isn't stolen, but the subject is. And it's actually been a little disappointing. When I first scanned the title, I thought it said "echinoderm", rather than "echidna", and I thought "Starfish sex!!! w00t1!!!" But no. Instead of talking about these getting it on:
(oh yeah)
We're talking about these:
(Via Ed)
You see? It's just...not the…
pharyngula | June 16, 2009Ah, poor Wisconsin…our neighboring state to the east, where the people are frail and frightened, and unable to cope with the rigors of reality. (That ought to get a few of them fired up, don't you think?)
There is a little dustup going on in the town of West Bend, Wisconsin. The local bluenoses noticed that there are books that discuss human sexuality in the library — and some of them are even written for teenagers! Teenagers, of course, never think about sex and have no interest in the subject unless some vile prurient publication stirs them up, so the crusaders for purity are stridently…
pharyngula | May 3, 2009And Ema gets very, very snarky. Missouri's legislators have just passed a vague law that says pharmacists don't have to fill prescriptions for things that they don't like, especially nothing that might look sorta like an abortifacient. This is a bad law that removes standards of professional conduct from licensed pharmacies, and further removes all liability from pharmacists who disregard the doctor's prescriptions for their patients. Well, some of their standards. Ema has a plan.
One last thing. I have a question for Rep. Ed Emery, Rep. Cynthia Davis, and all the other Missouri politicians…
pharyngula | April 19, 2009Legislators in Louisiana are considering a bill to prohibit human-animal hybrids. We've been all over this subject before — it's ridiculous and founded on complete incomprehension of what the research is all about. How ridiculous is it? SB 115 bans the "mixing of human and animal cells in a petri dish"!
Guess who is pushing this ban? The Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops, a collection of professional ignoramuses, like this guy, Archbishop Alfred Hughes: old, white celibates with clerical collars and heads stuffed full of decaying dogma.
Look, Hughes, let's face up to reality. You aren…
pharyngula | April 8, 2009She's so mad about how mean pro-choice people are, that she's making up new facts. She says she received death threats over her callous use of the death of children, which may be entirely true (and if it is, I'm pissed off at you: no, it doesn't matter how vile her behavior is, you don't threaten physical harm over it), but she also makes strange claims about how harmless the raving loonies of the anti-choice movement are. Part of it is fallacious context. The anti-choicers haven't blown up as many buildings as the number of churches that have been burned down! (Never mind that there is no…
pharyngula | March 18, 2009You've all heard the news by now, I'm sure: the pope was traveling to Africa, a continent plagued with widespread sexually transmitted diseases adn also, coincidentally, one of the few places where Catholicism is growing, and he dispensed a little medical advice:
Speaking to reporters on his way to Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, the Pope said HIV/Aids was "a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which can even increase the problem".
The solution lies in a "spiritual and human awakening" and "friendship for those who suffer…
pharyngula | March 17, 2009A while back, I got a letter from a student at the University of Texas named Mark, who had been confronted by a group of those typically hysterical anti-choice people on campus. They made an assertion I've heard many times, and he asked me to counter it.
So there I was, walking along the University of Texas campus, enjoying an absolutely gorgeous day (it was 75 and sunny!) when all of a sudden I'm accosted by a huge structure covered with gigantic (10+ ft) pictures of 5-20 week old fetuses. Surprise! I'd forgotten all about our annual day of political theatre hosted by some pro-life group on…
razib | March 9, 2009Advanced Paternal Age Is Associated with Impaired Neurocognitive Outcomes during Infancy and Childhood:
A sample of singleton children (n = 33,437) was drawn from the US Collaborative Perinatal Project. The outcome measures were assessed at 8 mo, 4 y, and 7 y (Bayley scales, Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale, Graham-Ernhart Block Sort Test, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Wide Range Achievement Test). The main analyses examined the relationship between neurocognitive measures and paternal or maternal age when adjusted for potential confounding factors. Advanced paternal age showed…
pharyngula | January 21, 2009Wow. This is a painful video. The camera man visits a group of abortion protesters, and asks a simple question: should abortion be legal or illegal? They are all very quick to answer "illegal!" But then he asks an obvious consequent: If abortion was illegal, what should be done with the women who have illegal abortions?.
Watch. Every one is stumped. They even say they've never thought about it before.
pharyngula | January 20, 2009If you want to see the consequences of the recent wave of attempts to endorse "provider conscience rules", in which health care providers are permitted to freely exercise their whims and biases in providing clients and patients their services, read this story. As usual, it's all about controlling the reproductive choices of women: we've had politicians blocking access to Plan B contraception; laws that would allow doctors to deny care if it was against their religious beliefs; and pharmacists who refuse to fill birth control prescriptions. Beyond simply passive denial of giving a patient what…
pharyngula | January 8, 2009There are some things I never contemplated before, but in case you need a list to be really sure, here are
Eight Reasons You Should Keep Coke Away From Your Vagina. Heed them!