- 256 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
What makes us male or female? A geneticist explains the history of scientific research into human sexuality and reproduction.
In this book, geneticist and science historian 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.
"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
In this book, geneticist and science historian 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.
"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
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Yes, you can access The 7 Sexes by Elof Axel Carlson in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Biological Sciences & Biology. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half title
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- Preface
- 1 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 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 Seven Sexes of Humans
- 17 The Identification and Role of Sex-Determining Genes
- 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 Sexuality
- Afterword
- Appendix: Secondary Literature and the Relation of Biology to Sex and Gender
- Glossary
- Notes
- Index