Esmer wants to know!

Post by **The Laughing Man** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 3:31 pm

is today Imagine What Would Happen Day?

Post by **MsMary** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 3:34 pm

It is.

Post by **The Laughing Man** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 3:36 pm

imagine what would happen if I had a dream!

Post by **MsMary** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 3:37 pm

You personally? That might be a little scary.

Post by **The Laughing Man** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:54 pm

you have no idea......

Post by **emotional leper** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 1:13 am

Esmer, I know you want to know this.

Women are, in fact, a curse on mankind.

Post by **DukkhaWaynhim** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 1:20 am

Women are not a curse on mankind.... just men.

Post by **Zenlunatic** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 2:33 am

Esmer wrote:imagine what would happen if I had a dream!

You'd make a mess.

Post by **MsMary** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:28 am

Esmer wrote:you have no idea......

And I bet I should be glad I have no idea.

Post by **emotional leper** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:29 am

DukkhaWaynhim wrote:Women are not a curse on mankind.... just men.

Women, are not, in fact, part of mankind.

They are womynkind, or however the hell they're spelling it this year.

Post by **MsMary** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:31 am

Wymyn.

Post by **The Laughing Man** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:32 am

I thought it was whymen?

Post by **MsMary** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:33 am

Why men, indeed?

Post by **emotional leper** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:02 am

MsMary wrote:Why men, indeed?

The Cost of Males is indeed something that comes up in certain of the biological fields. In short, we're here because otherwise you'd die of a cold.

Post by **MsMary** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:06 am

I don't get it.

Post by **emotional leper** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:30 am

MsMary wrote:I don't get it.

Suppose two populations. One that reproduces sexually, one that reproduces asexual through budding or another form of cloning.

The assexual population will rapidly be able to outreproduce the sexual population, since every member in the assexual population can bear young, yet only 1/2 (more or less, depending on species) of the sexual population can bear young (the females.)

Males carry a high ecological cost: They require food and living space, just as females do, and yet they contribute very little to the reproductive process in most species (and do not have to contribute more than a few minutes of time in humans, either.) It makes more sense from a reproductive standpoint to have an asexual population that reproduces via some form of budding or aparthenogenesis, to maximise reproductive potential.

However, sexual populations have two advantages over asexual populations which are of high importance.

Firstly, in a sexual population, the odds of two seperate mutations, which interact together in some beneficial manner, coming together after having arisen seperately, is infinitely greater than in an asexual population. If asexual lineage A and asexual lineage B develop, respectively, mutation A and mutation B, then each one will have to develop the other mutation on its own, since in the asexual population, there is no gene-mixing between lineages.

Secondly, in a sexual population, having a kind mixes around your genes for compatability types, and for surface markers on cells that play a role in immunodefense. A disease that killed your parents is less likely to kill you -- which is why the Spanish Flu was so devestating so suddenly, and then disappeared. In a sexual population, parasites, such as viruses, bacteria, and other parasites, must evolve along side the host population, because the host population's defenses are constantly changing around a certain equilibrium of occurance of various genes. In an asexual population, once the parasites evolve a particular genotype that is effective, it will be effective for a great deal of time, because incidence of mutation is much less in asexual beings.

In short: Males. We're what keeps us healthy sometimes.

Post by **MsMary** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:33 am

Thanks for the biology lesson.

Post by **emotional leper** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:42 am

MsMary wrote:Thanks for the biology lesson.

It's my job, ma'am.

I am a biologist. In training.

Post by **MsMary** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:43 am

I have a Master's degree in biology.

Post by **emotional leper** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:54 am

MsMary wrote:I have a Master's degree in biology.

I'm trying to remember exactly how I first learned this stuff. It was through Physical Anthropology, so it would have been through Evolutionary Biology. I 'm fairly sure someone was studying the Red Queen.

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Esmer wants to know!