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Posts in 'sex'

Why Do People Do It?

Browsing YouTube, I came across what is my new favourite TV show, 'To Catch a Predator'. For those that have never seen it, the clip provides a couple of examples of the programme's very simple premise; pretend to be a child online and record what happens when men come and visit the sting house, interview them and then arrest them. As you watch more and more clips, you begin to realise that turning on the computer and engaging in sex chat with a pseudo-child, may have been one of the worst decisions that these men have ever made. Whether you deserve to go to prison for talking to a pseudo-child is a difficult question to answer - though certainly most of them intended to have sex with a minor. But it's not just men who are capable of such stupid behaviour, as a story at CNN (about an octogenarian woman who …

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in sex · Sun 18 February 2007

The Need for Birth Control

Over at Scientific American is an article which describes the very real problems facing Africa today, and the effect of lack of birth control and poverty on the lives of Africans. It presents two graphs showing that Africa has both the highest birth rate (although it is one of the poorest areas in the world) but also the highest infant mortality rates - so not only are lots more infants being born to the poorest mothers in the world, but they are then losing them - as the article says, a double tragedy. Over at the BBC is an article which says that abortions in the UK have reached record levels, because of bad behaviour over the festive holidays:

A total of 5,992 abortions were carried out at Marie Stopes International's nine UK clinics in January - a rise of 13% on the 5,304 in January 2005. This is more in …

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in sex · Thu 08 February 2007

Doing it Bonobo Style

For those that have never heard of bonobos, they are one of the two types of chimpanzee which exist (the other being the common chimpanzee). One of the most interesting differences between bonobos and the common chimp is the way they use sex. From Frans de Waal on Bonobo Sex and Society:

The species is best characterized as female-centered and egalitarian and as one that substitutes sex for aggression. Whereas in most other species sexual behavior is a fairly distinct category, in the bonobo it is part and parcel of social relations--and not just between males and females. Bonobos engage in sex in virtually every partner combination (although such contact among close family members may be suppressed). And sexual interactions occur more often among bonobos than among other primates. Despite the frequency of sex, the bonobo's rate of reproduction in the wild is about the same as that of the …

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in sex · Sat 03 February 2007

Why Do Boobs Get Big?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about the function of the foreskin and why it might exist in the first place. There are lots of things we don't understand about the human body and why the female breast is the way it is, is one such mystery. What then is the great mystery about boobs? From Wikipedia's page on breasts:

Zoologists point out that no female mammal other than the human has breasts of comparable size when not lactating and that humans are the only primate that have permanently swollen breasts. This suggests that the external form of the breasts is connected to factors other than lactation alone.

Look at the two pictures of the adult female chimpanzees. The first shows that female chimps normally have a flat chest (which only swells when breast feeding). The second picture shows what happens to a female in oestrus - this …

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in sex · Wed 31 January 2007

What if Tweedledum were Gay?

I had an anonymous comment to a previous post on sex which asked:

So if sex can be explained by science as a preprogramed procreational act that we are all compelled to do, to further our species, please offer a scientific explanation for homosexuality.

So the example I thought I'd start with is Tweedledum and Tweedledee:

Tweedledum and Tweedledee Agreed to have a battle; For Tweedledum said Tweedledee Had spoiled his nice new rattle.

What if Tweedledum had been gay? What are the chances that Tweedledee would be gay too? Twin studies are fascinating for asking questions about the influence of genes on behaviour. Twins share DNA. Twins also often share the same environment. So by comparing monozygotic twins (twins who grew from a single egg) who grew up together, to those that didn't and by including the results of dizygotic twins (twins who come from two different eggs, but …

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in sex · Thu 11 January 2007

Orgasms Galore

According to an article over at Wired, sex scientists have learned lots about orgasms in the last ten years. An extract:

Men and women have described an orgasmic experience from stimulation of the skin region around the level of the spinal cord injury. The injury creates an area of heightened sensitivity.

They've told us if the right person stimulates that skin in the right way, it can produce very pleasurable sensation, including what they describe as orgasms. We studied one such woman who had a spinal cord injury near her shoulders. She stimulated her neck with a vibrator, and she said that elicited an orgasm for her. We observed her blood pressure and heart rate, and they became elevated just as if it were a genital orgasm.

Very odd indeed. I once heard of a girl who could orgasm from the tickling of her elbow. Although I was sceptical, perhaps …

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in sex · Wed 10 January 2007

Removing the Helmet

Whilst I was reading around for ideas for my previous posting on sex, I came across an interesting paper, which discusses some evolutionary theories about the penis. Specifically, I found the discussion regarding the existence of foreskin to be quite entertaining. A couple of extracts:

Another intriguing implication of the difference between circumcised and intact males is the question of self-cuckoldry. Put another way, is it possible (short of artificial insemination) for a women to become pregnant by a man she never had sex with? We think the answer is “yes.” If an uncircumcised man (Male B) were to have sex with a women (Female A) who recently had sex with another man (Male A), in the process of thrusting his penis back and forth in her vagina some of Male A’s semen would be forced under Male B’s frenulum, collect behind his coronal ridge, and be displaced …

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in sex · Tue 09 January 2007

Let's Talk About Sex

Sex is one of those topics which is huge (if you're lucky) and I'm going to be talking about sex for a long time to come (if you pardon the puns). But let's have a think about it (not like that, at the back!). Sex is basically a way to transmit DNA and make offspring. There are a variety of reasons why we are sexual creatures rather than asexual ones, but the simplest explanation is that as our ancestors were sexual, so too are we.

But sex is also a strange beast. It is not a simple clinical process whereby a male gives a female his sperm and she deposits it inside of her, no fuss. It invariably requires a great deal of thrashing around, sweating and all manner of bodily fluids (well at least that's the way I've been doing it!). And human beings certainly enjoy sex. It is …

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in sex · Fri 05 January 2007

 
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