'Why Do Men Have Nipples?' answered in new book

[rodeodance]

story under most popular on yahoo. slow news day?


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/leisure_nipples_dc;_ylt=Av3cRwscPMmmfsNjzCxZ4Hus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-

'Why Do Men Have Nipples?' answered in new book

By John Zawadzinski Tue Aug 2,11:08 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Have you ever wondered why your teeth chatter when you're cold, or if you could really catch a disease from sitting on a toilet seat?

New York physician Billy Goldberg, pestered by unusual questions at cocktail parties and other social gatherings over the years, puts the public's mind at ease in his book "Why Do Men Have Nipples?" which hits the book stores on Tuesday.

"It's really remarkable how often you get accosted," said Goldberg, 39. "There are the medical questions from family and friends, and then there are the drunk and outrageous questions where somebody wants to drop their pants and show you a rash or something."
.......

"People tend to know so little about their bodies as compared to their cars or their laptops," said Leyner, 49, of Hoboken, New Jersey. "When I worked in a pharmacy in Washington, D.C., people would ask me medical questions all the time. I was just a 22-year-old cashier at Rite Aid."

[KamaAina]

1. The embryo follows a female template until about six weeks,

when the male sex chromosome kicks in.

Someone please tell Bush** that embryos are female. We'll have stem cell research in no time!

[sir_captain]

5. That is not really accurate

Embryos are certainly not all female. By definition, an embryo with a Y chromosome is male.

[jonolover]

7. We know that,

but the embryo does not know that it is going to be a male. It just does the things it is supposed to until finally the time comes to utilize the sex chromosomes - X or Y. But if you must, in your words, the embryo is unisex until that time.

[sir_captain]

11. No, it is not unisex

it is either male or female. Physically, there is a certain point at which the embryo differentiates and develops basic male or female secondary sexual characteristics. But genetically, the embryo is always either male or female--hence, the OP's suggestion that we tell Bush that embryos are all female is misguided. This is simply basic biology.

[KamaAina]

8. Yahoo!: The new CNN?

I am only telling you the tale I've been told:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/leisure_nipples_dc;_ylt=AmW1yoDRJvGQSX5Rk3EzipCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-

While only females have mammary glands, we all start out in a similar way in the embryo, the authors explain. The embryo follows a female template until about six weeks, when the male sex chromosome kicks in.

[sir_captain]

12. I'm not disputing that part

even though it's been vastly oversimplified. But what that article says is not at all the same thing as saying that all embryos are female. See my above post--there is no *physical* difference between male and female embryos to a certain point in the differentiation process, but they are always either male or female from a genetic point of view.

[KamaAina]

15. Oh! That part was just about convincing *Bush* that embryos are female

considering Cheney and Rove have him convinced he's pResident, that's not exactly a herculean task. :P

[sir_captain]

21. haha

there we are in complete agreement :-)

[UncleSepp]

18. The genetic component is only one component

Neither karotype nor phenotype is the sole determinant of gender, and even karotype plus phenotype do not necessarily tell the entire story. In the absence of masculinizing changes, an XY fetus will develop a mostly female phenotype with female external genitalia and without normal female internal reproductive organs.

I believe this is what was meant, that a female-appearing body is the "standard model" and male-specific structures are the "options package".

[sir_captain]

19. I think you mean genotype

A Karyotype (I think that also may have been what you meant) is a genetics technique for looking at individual chromosomes.

I know what was meant by the OP and am not disputing it in any way--just saying that by definition the genetic makeup of a person is what defines his or her gender in a scientific sense. Societally, is someone like Jamie Lee Curtis, who is XY but never developed physically as a male, a woman? Of course! But scientifically, she will always be genetically a male.

[UncleSepp]

22. No, I wrote exactly what I meant

A karotype (karyotype) can refer to either the picture of the arrangement of chromosomes in a cell in numeric order, or to the actual chromosome complement of a cell. It is common to refer to "XY, XX, XXY, 0X karotype" when discussing the sex chromosomes in literature of medicine, biology, and genetics.

A human with XY sex chromosomes and a female-appearing body - that is, someone with a 5-alpha reductase deficiency, androgen insensitivity syndrome, etc. - may be referred to by "science" as an XY phenotypic female or simply an XY female. That "science" includes genetics. Scientifically, gender is complex, and does not depend on any single factor.

(I have seen both karotype and karyotype used with about the same frequency. If you'd prefer karyotype, that's fine, but let's not confuse a discussion about genetics and gender with spelling flames.)

[KamaAina]

25. Snopes has the Jamie Lee Curtis thing on yellow (undetermined)

http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/jamie.htm

Wouldn't it be cool if it were true, though? Imagine knocking back a few brewskis with your basic homophobic freeper, ogling a few Jamie Lee pinups or perhaps renting one of her movies -- then hitting him with that zinger!

[AlienGirl]

27. It depends, more or less, on whether you're reading medicine or biology

"Genotype" is more often used in biology articles, in my experience, while medical articles "karyotype" or "karotype" is more common.

In any event, the phenotype of the XX or XY (or XXY or XO or XXXY or so on) individual depends partly on the individual's karyotype, or karotype, or genotype, and partly on other factors that influence embryonic development, such as hormone exposure.

And in alligators, it depends on the temperature.

Tucker

[Patiod]

2. Best arguement against intelligent design that I can think of

But I don't think about it a lot....

[MrScorpio]

3. I know why I have mine

They're playthings for MrsScorpio

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. Too. Much. Information. (nt)

[6000eliot]

6. Good for you and your Mrs.

More straight men need to know how good it feels to have your man nipples played with.

[Elidor]

26. I was waiting for someone to pipe up with that, lol!

[Love Bug]

9. I always thought men had nipples because they were decoys

to attract female nipples (well, they are in the case of straight men)!

[jody]

10. A more pressing question, after millenniums of circumcision, why

do men have foreskins if evolution works?

:hi:

[sir_captain]

13. Several reasons

A) The majority of men are uncircumcised
b) Evolution keeps *genetic* changes, not artificial ones
c) Even if evolution did work that way, it keeps things that are naturally selected as being benficial. Circumcision is unnecessary and probably more negative than anything else.

[jody]

14. How dare you give a reasoned answer to my attempt at humor.

:pals:

[Kraklen]

16. That's just...

your attempts at humor trying to evolve.

[jody]

17. Thanks, I needed that.

:hi:

[sir_captain]

20. hehe

I figured you were kidding, but just in case... ;-)

[miss_kitty]

23. actually a new study shows

uncut men are more likely to get HIV than circumsized guys

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/07/0726_050726_circumcision.html

[AlienGirl]

28. 'Cause Lamark was wrong.

:P

[miss_kitty]

24. They have nipples because it would

look weird if they didn't