The ultimate answer to life, rape, pregnancies, chemistry and everything

[xilman]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

There is in fact some scientific evidence that female orgasm - long thought a vestigial trait (related to male and female sex organs starting from the same substrate and sharing a great deal of physiological features, somewhat like nipples in men but much more elaborate in this case) - may have some evolutionarily-adaptive function tied to fertility, but this is still the subject of ongoing debate:

Wikipedia | Orgasm: Theoretical_biological_and_evolutionary_functions

But since the esteemed lawmaker at the center of the present tempest likely also disavows evolutionary biology, it would be the height of hypocrisy for him to try to point to such work in an attempt to justify his "legitimate rape" hypothesis.

A program broadcast on the BBC some years ago displayed the view from an endoscope pointing at the cervix. The woman orgasmed after the man had ejaculated and the endoscope showed that the cervix repeated dipped into the pool of semen. It looked very similar to mammalian lips drinking.

Further evidence that the female orgasm may be evolutionarily significant.


What is also known is that the vaginal chemistry, especially the pH, varies after orgasm. In addition, X spermatozoa differ in their motility to their Y counterparts as a function of pH. I forget which are relatively disabled and which way the acidity varies. No doubt Google would be my friend if I asked it nicely.


Not sure whether the Beeb footage is available on iPlayer. It may well be filtered out by some ISPs,


Paul

[davieddy]

I consider the sound bite "rape is rape" a gross oversimplification of the term, at least in its modern diverse usages.

David

[LaurV]

What a nice proof that math is one of the most wonderful professions!

A psychologist, geneticist, gynecologist, whatever, will never venture in solving integrals, but prestigious mathematicians would love making supposition and arguing on the knife's sharpest edge, in domains they have no idea about... (no offense intended!)

[retina]

Originally Posted by LaurV

What a nice proof that math is one of the most wonderful professions!

A psychologist, geneticist, gynecologist, whatever, will never venture in solving integrals, but prestigious mathematicians would love making supposition and arguing on the knife's sharpest edge, in domains they have no idea about... (no offense intended!)

http://xkcd.com/435/

[xilman]

Originally Posted by LaurV

What a nice proof that math is one of the most wonderful professions!

A psychologist, geneticist, gynecologist, whatever, will never venture in solving integrals, but prestigious mathematicians would love making supposition and arguing on the knife's sharpest edge, in domains they have no idea about... (no offense intended!)

Not completely true, IME. I've worked professionally with geneticists. Have you?

I can speak for the other professions you mention.

[Batalov]

Wait a minute! would that be a gynecologist or a whatever?

And only to think that I considered the Mouse genetics quote a bit risque. How admirably this thread progressed!

[LaurV]

Originally Posted by xilman

Not completely true, IME. I've worked professionally with geneticists. Have you?

I can speak for the other professions you mention.

I don't need to answer that, as I didn't issue any opinion related to that domains.

btw, IME=independent medical examinator? I knew it!

[edit: cross post with SB, my opinion was only about hanging the guy, or splitting his tool in six, to which idea I still adhere, and the "they have no idea about" was more related to "there are theories"... When I see this formulation I get mad, and want to add a "citation need" tag as wiki does! Sorry if I disturbed deep waters . And to be not totally out of subject, yes, I was and am working with biologists, for example, beside of other things, I am the guy who developed this toy "da capo al fine", including the software, which is very complex, a lot of math inside, it does not look like from outside, but try measuring the pH so accurate and you will hit big walls called Nernst equations (to do the right thermal compensation). I can give a long lecture about pH and biology, and all-times-favorite subject of mine in school was chemistry. I can deal with Mendel Laws, and generally I am a walking encyclopedia. But the thread is not about this]

[xilman]

Originally Posted by LaurV

I don't need to answer that, as I didn't issue any opinion related to that domains.

btw, IME=independent medical examinator? I knew it!

Yes you did. You opined "A psychologist, geneticist, gynecologist, whatever, will never venture in solving integrals" and I called you on it.

IME: In My Experience, as you doubtless know.

[Batalov]

Oh, finally we have a chemist in the house who will tell us what is wrong with this article, or maybe this one. (I am still trying to stay relevant to the topic, mind you. Personally, I am more of the whatever professional scientist, but I dabble in computational biology and statistical genetics, too. And a recovering chemical physist, too. But enough about me :-/ )

[Dubslow]

Originally Posted by Batalov

Oh, finally we have a chemist in the house who will tell us what is wrong with this article, or maybe this one. (I am still trying to stay relevant to the topic, mind you. Personally, I am more of the whatever professional scientist, but I dabble in computational biology and statistical genetics, too. And a recovering chemical physist, too. But enough about me :-/ )

NanoPutians? WTF?

[Batalov]

Old news dude. Follow the ACS link. They made the whole article free* for a long time now. If I were a chemistry teacher, I'd spend a week just regurgitating the pages from it. Some students only need a push to love science and this push need to be made. Some people just lose the ability to have fun while working over years - but luckily not all.

___
*oh crap, no, they didn't. What a shame. They should have! Anyone interested, PM me for a full PDF.