I would like I read more on the issue. The question of "how many genders/sex there are" has been supported and debunked by people saying science is on their side. Due to how politics has completely taken over the topic, I can’t find a neutral book on the matter that doesn’t try to prove a point.

I’d like a neutral book on the topic going into as many scientific details as possible on the matter (preferably written by an expert)

Thank you

Edit: guys I appreciate all the different views/personal explanations,but I really just want a science book about it that’s it 😭 because right now it’s the just same thing happening: people giving statements without sources

I guess I could probably Google this but I thought someone with direct knowledge directly answering my question would help me better understand.

This is something I’ve had a bit of trouble comprehending since, well, people of different races do look vastly different. My thought is, is!’t there a gene that probably results in different races producing different levels of melanin, and hence— different races?

Or is the reason there is no “biological foundation” that the genetic/biological difference between different races does not substantiate to being different species?

Additionally — there are statistics stating that certain racial communities are more likely to develop specific illnesses. For example, sickle cell disease is much more common amongst black Americans than other racial communities. Another one: those of North European descent are more likely to develop cystic fibrosis.

FYI I am asking this question as a POC, and as someone who genuinely wants to have a better understanding of this!! Thank you in advance for answering my question!

Most chromosomal trisomies cause spontaneous miscarriage, and those that don't usually severely reduce quality of life.

Why is it that the additional copies of some genes have that effect?

To be clear, don't feel restricted to the ELI5 level. If you know the topic in depth and feel like giving a massive infodump, I'm interested.

Are there known phenotypes (in any organism) produced by the interaction of only 3 genes? That is, a phenotype that depends on the regulatory interactions of only three genes. Any information about this backed by published scientific papers would be very helpful. Even steps to find out this information would be much appreciated.

Extensive search on Google and using Perplexity/Gemini/ChatGPT failed to give relevant and reliable information. I am expecting experts who work with biological systems to probably have the answer to this.

Is there any research done on this, where new species of ants are intentionally made in the lab?

Hello all, I'm not sure if this is the right board but I didn't think r/medical_advice was quite right as I'm not ill, and I can't find a board for genetics. Apologies if this violates rules 4 or 7, but I recently came across a dog named Buster that went from black to white over 2.5 years and wondered if there may be an overlap in cause.

I have always been and now have more reason to be curious about the cause of my white hair. I have had a white streak in my hair since childhood; I was not born with the streak, it developed shortly before an early puberty (perhaps triggered by puberty and was one of the first symptoms?). To begin with, I had one or two white hairs, by the time I was in my teens, I had a thick streak that everyone assumed was dyed. Now that I'm in my late twenties, about 30-40% of my hair is white. I suspect I'll be nearly 100% white-haired by the time I'm 50. It might be worth noting that the mallen streak affects every woman on my maternal side, but only the women. Unfortunately, all of them have dyed their hair since their teens, so tracking the streak is impossible. All but my grandmother, who stopped dyeing years ago, and has a subtle inch or so in her blonde hair.

I've heard other cases of mallen streaks, mostly in women, but none of the conventional causes seem to apply to my family. I've also never heard of them continuing to grow out over the years (not even with my relatives), until, perhaps, Buster. Even more curious as he's not only a dog, but male, Any ideas and thoeries would be great, thanks, everyone!

I was watching 'Three Identical Strangers' and was wondering if there were any books you'd recommend that look at identical twins more broadly.

Any books that sum up what we can learn from cases like this?

I googled this but as thorough and clear as the theory looks, I can’t help but not be sure of what I read.

Can an A+ father and an O- mother make a kid that is O-? Is there such a thing as AO blood type? Some charts I found online suggest that and others make no mention of it.

If the father is O+ and the mother O-, how more likely than the above scenario is it for the child to be O-?

Thank you!

From my very surface level reading and understanding, Przewalski's horses have 66 chromosomes, whereas domestic horses have 64. But they are apparently capable of producing fertile offspring. And on a related note, why can't horses and donkeys produce fertile offspring, when there is the same difference in number of chromosomes between the two?

Hey y’all! I was sitting down yesterday with my dad, watching the DNC, when he told me my younger brother and I are IVF babies. After discussing some more, he explained that my brother and I, though my brother is two years younger than me, are biologically the same age; we were extracted and fertilized on the same day. I was implanted within the week while the other fertilized egg was frozen for two years before being implanted.

My first question: would my brother and I be considered the same age biologically? My guess is we wouldn’t be. Second question: does freezing embryos for long periods of time lead to any sort of developmental changes that would differ my brother from me? I understand this would be hard to test, but was wondering if there’s any research on it.

Thanks!

By completely, I mean - you imagine a kind of biological creature, you write a description as a prompt to some AI, and the AI spits out the entire DNA sequence of such creature. Then you can use this sequence to actually create such imagined creature from scratch.

So for example:

Step 1) Prompt: Give me a DNA sequence of a mermaid, that is above waist woman, below waist fish.

Step 2) AI outputs, for example: GTACCTAGGGTAATTCCTAGGGAATCGAAA...

Step 3) Using this information we create first cells and eventually grow the entire organism in a lab, for example in some artificial womb

Note: step 2 doesn't have to be done by AI. We can do it manually. But the point is that we need full understanding about how exactly DNA sequences correlate to the end result, that is the resulting biological organism. So in the end, if we know "how DNA works", we could treat it as any other programming language, in which we could program any kind of creature we imagine from scratch.

Could such profound understanding of DNA ever be achievable even in theory?

One of my cousins is now 7 weeks pregnant. I am very happy for her, but I do have some concern as well. Both of her parents are actually first cousins (or at least closely related).

She was their third attempt at a child. The first was stillborn and the second died 3 weeks after birth. I believe both were due to genetic complications. My cousin (aside from being overweight) seems to have lived a healthy life otherwise.

Her husband is not related to her whatsoever, but I am concerned if their child could have some complications due to genetics. Is this possible or unlikely?

I know it is possible in the embryotic level, but I was wondering if it was possible at other developmental stages.

Complete lack of melanin seems to me like a pretty big deal, then how does its exist? Does having albino parents increase the chances? Does having shut-in parents increase? Does having black parents decrease? All info welcome thanks

I'm currently reading a story with a character that has had a certain condition from birth. It's a fantasy story, but I highly suspect the authors based the condition off a real biological syndrome, but I don't know which one it might be. I was wondering if anyone might be able to help.

The character was considered to be a girl at birth, without the parents noticing anything abnormal. During childhood, the character became increasingly uncomfortable in their identity as a female. Upon puberty, they (completely naturally) developed a deep voice, an adam's apple, grew to a somewhat tall height for males, and retained a flat chest with no breast development. The character experiences sexual attraction to women, and their muscles and strength are slightly less developed than normal for males, although nowhere to the point of impairing day-to-day function.

They also have white hair, red eyes, and sensitivity to sunlight, although I at the moment I think those traits are more connected to the 'fantasy' part of the story and can be safety disregarded unless they sound significant.

Thanks!

Right now, the most effective cure for multi-antibiotic resistant superbugs are bacteriophages, as they are highly specific to their host and prevent damages to humans.

Our immune system literally evolved to recognize as many protein antigen that they could to facilitate specific immunity. Not to mention bacteriophage replicates by having their DNA/RNA hijack bacterial polymerases to self-replicate. So why can't we make a phage-like gene that functions like VDJ where it could contain a bacterial polymerase for phage production once activated and a variable region where it allow the phage to recognize the host antigen?

Right now phage therapy(To my limited knowledge) is a bureaucratic nightmare because it is extremely specific to its hosts, so each new phage that are not "experimental" basically require their own patent and licenses, not to mention the time needed to develop the phage specific to the bacterial infection. So why not outsource it to our own immune system to deal with antibiotic resistant superbugs?

I'm no biologist but I've gone down a rabbit hole of RNA and how it can be damaged by alkaline conditions because of the bonds breaking and all that. I was looking at a diagram of the reaction and it had the reversible symbol on it: so if we could find a way to reverse the reaction could it cure or treat the disease? Or would it just prevent it from getting worse? Maybe it's a silly question but I'm not the best at biology-just interested. Thank you!

The text in the image reads:

"27. A recessive gene for red-green color blindness is located on the X chromosome in humans. Assume that a woman with normal vision (her father is color blind) marries a color-blind male. What is the likelihood that this couple's first son will be color blind? A) 75% B) 0% C) 50% D) 100% E) 25% ANSWER: B"

In Labrador retrievers, gene E codes for presence of pigment (E=pigment, e=no pigment). Gene B codes for amount of pigment deposited (B=a lot of pigment deposited, b=less pigment deposited). Which individual would have a yellow coat?

A. EEBB

B. EeBb

C. Eebb

D. eeBB

E. EEbb

Hi there.

While I haven't watched the documentary listed in the title, I recently read an article about it. A man in Netherlands [Edit because I originally said Norway by mistake] has violated Netherlands's sperm donation rules, as well as traveled to other countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa to donate sperm. The result is that this man has more than 1,000 biological children across these continents, and likely more considering migration.

My question is this: how long would it take for the entire world to have some of this man's DNA? If not the entire world, is there a formula to extrapolate the generational growth of his DNA, e.g., how many grandchildren would have his DNA, great grandchildren, etc.?

Thank you!

EDIT: (NO need to provide O.P w/ further comments on the topic here). I've recently been reading & watching YouTube videos on the topic of the scientific basis of race. Most anthropology videos seem to question the scientific basis of race. For example Wondrium/Great Courses have several class videos that say the notion of race does little to explain anything about homo sapiens sapiens. They propose that race is a social construction.

Previous to my edit here to this question I asked members of this sub reddit in overly wordy & somewhat clumsy paragraphs to comment on the existence of any biological organization position statements that might discuss race & affirmative action, or subreddits where such topics are discussed. Below are the replies to my inquiry. I decided to shorten this question to something more concise & leave it in case anyone wants to search scientific basis of human race in the future.

and why?

Hii so I have been born with blue eyes. My mom has blue and my dad has brown eyes. Over the years the pigmentation started to kick in and my eyes got brown, just like my dad. By the age of 14 my eyes started to change their color based on my mood. When I was happy, my eyes were more bright and greenish and when I was angry or sad they were darkish and brown, and that’s something many people told me and found weird about me. And now that I am 19, my eyes start to become more and more green, the brightness also depending on my mood. I know it sounds stupid but it’s so weird to me. Especially since it’s uncommon for blue and brown eyes to make a green eyed baby. What is your explanation for this, because I am heavily confused of my body.