The 7 Sexes – Biology of Sex Determination de Elof Axel Carlson

The 7 Sexes – Biology of Sex Determination

Elof Axel Carlson

Few of us know much about the biology of sex determination, but what could be more interesting than to discover how we are shaped into males and females? In this book, Elof Carlson tells the incredible story of the difficult quest to understand how the body forms girls and boys. Carlson's history takes us from antiquity to the present day to detail how each component of human reproduction and sexuality was identified and studied, how this knowledge enlarged our understanding of sex determination, and how it was employed to interpret such little understood aspects of human biology as the origin of intersex births.

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Cuprins

List of Tables; List of Figures; Preface1. Introduction ; 2. Wild Guesses in an Era of Scientific Ignorance; 3. The Ancient World; 4. Monotheistic Religious Interpretations ; 5. The Descriptive Embryology of Male and Female Development; 6. The Discovery of the Egg in Higher Eukaryotes ; 7. The Discovery of the Sperm in Higher Eukaryotes; 8. The Discovery of Sex Hormones ; 9. Ploidy Levels and Sex Determination ; 10. The Discovery of Sex Chromosomes ; 11. The Balance Theory of Sex Determination ; 12. The Discovery of Sex in Microorganisms ; 13. The History and Interpretations of Hermaphrodites and Intersexes ; 14. Dosage Compensation and the Sex Chromosomes ; 15. The Discovery of Human Sex Chromosome Conditions ; 16. The Role of Sex Determining Genes ; 17. The Seven Sexes of Humans ; 18. The History of Homosexuality ; 19. The History of Behavioral Gender Assignment ; 20. The Evolution of Sex Determination ; 21. What Does It Mean to Have an Assigned Sex? ; 22. The Quest for a Unified Theory of Sex, Gender, and SexualityAppendix: Secondary Literature and the Relation of Biology to Sex and Gender ; Glossary; Index

Recenzii

"Carlson does an excellent job presenting the researchers who, over time, worked out the details of sex determination and differentiation. Highly informative and instructive." Johan Verhulst, MD, Kinsey Institute "Carlson reveals the various scientific advances, in both methods and understanding, that allowed researchers to identify anatomical structures, gametes, sex hormones, sex chromosomes, and ultimately, a firm comprehension of the genetics of sex.... This scientific story of discovery is quite fascinating." Barbara Baumgartner, Washington University, St. Louis