Lazar Greenfield's 'Semengate' Stuns Scientific Community

[Celebration]

Good grief. This story sounds like the PC police gone crazy. And to think I consider myself a feminist............

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-smerconish/semengate-stuns-scientifi_b_853164.html

Lazar Greenfield, M.D. is no ordinary surgeon. Until last week, he was the president-elect of the American College of Surgeons. The man is the inventor of the Greenfield Filter, a device that has saved countless lives as a means of preventing blood clots during surgery. He's a professor emeritus of surgery at the University of Michigan. He has written more than 360 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, 128 book chapters and two textbooks. He has served on the Editorial Board of 15 scientific journals and was also the lead editor of the Surgery News, the trade publication in which his writing initiated Semengate.

In the February issue, he penned some thoughts on Valentine's Day under the heading of "Gut Feelings." ("But Valentine's Day is about love, and if you remember a romantic gut feeling when you met your significant other, it might have a physiological basis.") Greenfield proceeded to then discuss the mating habits of fruit flies ("It has long been known that Drosophila raised on starch media are more likely to mate with other starch-raised flies"), the mating habits of the rotifer ("Biologists say that it's more advantageous for a rotifer to remain asexual and pass 100 percent of its genetic information to the next generation."). In each case, Dr. Greenfield made sure to reference to the scientific literature. Then he turned his attention to humans.

Dr. Greenfield noted the therapeutic effects of semen, citing research from the Archives of Sexual Behavior which found that female college students practicing unprotected sex were less likely to suffer from depression than those whose partners used condoms (as well as those who remained abstinent).

Presumably it was the closing line that caused the controversy: "So there's a deeper bond between men and women than St. Valentine would have suspected, and now we know there's a better gift for that day than chocolates.

"

[phylny]

1. Fifteen years ago, my gynocologist

gave me information on the benefits of semen to women. It really actually made sense. Unfortunately, my husband's prostate was removed, so there goes that. I'm not depressed, though, because he's alive :)

[RC]

2. It does make sense.

If you are depressed, you are less likely to survive. Slowed reaction time, not quite as sharp. It takes the edge off in emergencies.
There is nothing sexist about biological facts.