Radiolab Presents: Gonads is a multi-episode journey deep into the parts of us that let us make more of us. Longtime staff producer and host Molly Webster explores the primordial roots of our drive to reproduce, introduces a revolutionary fertility procedure that sounds like science fiction, reveals a profound secret about gender that lives inside all of us, and calls on writers, educators, musicians, artists and comedians to debate how we’re supposed to talk to kids about sex.
The macho sperm myth: Article by Robert D. Martin
Image source: LetsTalkSex.net
“Human fertilisation is a gigantic lottery with 250 million tickets: for healthy sperm, it is the luck of the draw.”
In this popular science article, Martin debunks a series of myths and double standards in human reproduction, including the pervasive, heteronormative belief that sperm cells "race" to reach an egg.
Temperature of egg determines gonads that form in turtles. (Gender Showcase, 9-12)
Boris Tezak, Integrative Biology Ph.D. student at Florida Atlantic University investigates the effects of climate change on sea turtle gender. SUBSCRIBE: htt...
Discussion questions:
How do changing temperatures affect a sea turtle egg’s development?
How will average global temperature changes affect a sea turtle egg’s development?
References
M. Ewert, D. Jackson, and C. Nelson, 1994, Patterns of temperature-dependent sex determination in turtles, J. Exp. Zool. 270:3-15.
Roughgarden p. 203.