RSS
Home
High-contrast women, why bother with sex?
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
High-contrast women (article in Science Daily)
A new study on how we recognize faces as male or female finds that part of it is contrast. In all races, female skin tends to be paler than male skin, but female lips and eyes are not paler, so female faces have greater contrast. The researchers found they could control the apparent gender of an averaged, androgynous face by raising or lowering the contrast. The real-life version of this, of course, is putting on make-up.
Why bother with sex? (article in The Great Beyond)
"Is sex necessary?" James Thurber asked. It certainly involves a lot of fuss and bother, and biologists have often wondered why (or even if) it's worth the effort. One theory is that sexual species can evolve more quickly to meet new challenges, being able to re-shuffle their genes faster than asexual ones. A new experiment with the microscopic worm C. elegans gives support for this view. C. elegans is hermaphroditic. Scientists engineered two breeds, one that always mated with others and one that fertilized itself -- effectively asexual. Then they exposed both breeds to a toxin. The out-breeding worm populations survived better.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
