Seven-Gendered Organisms Reproduce Gender Randomly

Sometimes biology can be soooo cool. Living things are so much more varied and fascinating than we can imagine -- well, maybe if you're a writer, you can imagine...

"We found a pair of genes that have a specific sequence which is different for each mating," Eduardo Orias said. Orias is part of the UC Santa Barbara team of biologists who worked with researchers from the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the J. Craig Venter Institute. "The mating type of the 'parents' has no influence whatsoever on the sex of the progeny. It's completely random, as if they had a roulette wheel with six numbers and wherever the marble ends up is what they get. By chance they may have the same mating type as the parents - but it's only by chance. It's a fascinating system."

Seven-Gendered Organisms Reproduce Gender Randomly : News : Counsel & Heal

Expression of emotion in books declined during 20th century, study finds

Using a database of over 5 million digitized books, researchers at the Universities of Bristol, Sheffield, and Durham found a divergence between literary American and British English, with the former being more 'emotional' than the latter. More interestingly, they noticed a decrease in the use of emotional words in the past decades except for those relating to fear. They note that during the period around World War II, there was an increase in words related to sadness, and a correspondent decrease in words related to joy.

Now, of course, they're debating what all this means...



Expression of emotion in books declined during 20th century, study finds