sunnyfield

Those last two posts should help me get a better picture of things . Thanks . I will look up that Chemical Abstract Services database and also read up on what a "cas number" is - both of those things are very interesting and helpful to answer my questions.

Lol, thanks guys for the input. I was hoping for an answer more like " oh, yeah, there's a facility out in Nevada that catalogs all known chemicals". I should have put that the chemical in question is castoreum .

I recently read a news article about strange and unpleasant additives in food , and one of them was the ANAL SECRETIONS OF A BEAVER ! Now , this begs the question : who tasted a beaver butt to discover that it has a flavor that is similar to raspberries , and therefore would be good in yogurt? How do they figure this out ? Who does this, what is his job title ? Just some of my many practical questions. If this isn't the appropriate forum, please let me know where I can post this . Thanks.

Thanks Ewmon. Very interesting post. I love a good link . You bring up an interesting subject - innovation .

I am curious what others here think about the way such subjects are handled on television programs. As I said earlier , there seems to be a spin put on things - anyone else notice what I am talking about?

I watched the videos from one of the sites above, and I was interested in the Autosomal DNA - I really never had that sorted out. I knew they say we have two chromosomes, and I remember being taught that we have 23 pairs of chromosomes - but I had not until now understood the difference between the two types of DNA. So "Autosomes" are not "Chromosomes" ? We have two chromosomes and 22 pair of autosomes? And then there is mitochondrial DNA which is passed down separately - fascinating. I hope I am not a drag for the rest of you - I know my questions are rudimentary. But I appreciate the help. It is hard to look things up with something like this, if you don't know the proper way to phrase a question or how to ask the right question. With that said, if there is a more appropriate forum for someone like me , please let me know. Moontanman, are your Youtube posts about genetics?

The show was "Through the Wormhole " , the episode was "Will Sex Become Extinct" . If you want to see what I am referring to as far as how they presented the subject.

Thank you very much! I will watch those videos. I really appreciate your help. The reason I am trying to grasp this is because there always seems to be a sort of misrepresentation by scientists on these television programs. I realize that it may be because TV wants to "sex it up" for the public to make the show more shocking and get people's attention, and I also think a lot of the time there is misrepresentation because the geneticist being interviewed is a woman - and sometimes these women may be feminists or maybe have issues with men in their personal life. But as I said, maybe it is just for ratings. The perspective that seems to be so commonly presented is that women have more genes than men, because of the larger number of genes on the X, and therefore have some genetic superiority. One woman even said that this is an inferiority of the male and that eventually it will lead to extinction of men because the Y cannot repair itself. Furthermore the Y is portrayed as a little stunted version of the X. I have listened to this sort of thing and pondered it, a perspective growing in my mind from the information I have been taking in . My take on it is this: The Y is not a stunted version of the X, but a special "mantle" of Identity passed from father to son , a relationship that does not exist with mother to daughter. The fact that women have two X's just means there is a lot of redundancy. Women are in fact missing a special piece of information - an extra piece of information, if you will. This is particularly relevant to me because of my Jewish heritage from my biological father. According to Jewish tradition , a person is not a Jew unless his mother was. This makes no sense to me . It certainly is not Biblical. And it also makes no sense in light of the subject of this thread. I am quite Jewish - my Y goes back to Biblical times if the above information is true. That is why I titled the thread as I did : "X and Y Chromosomes and Identity". So to sum up : Men have a special inheritance from there fathers, a special chromosome that more solidifies their identity, not a lesser genetic make-up, but an extra piece of information. Please forgive my pro-male stance, I know it is upsetting...lol.

Let me say right off that I am not a Biologist, Geneticist, or even a student. I watched an episode of "Through the Wormhole" and it brought up some things I want to understand better, but I don't know where to begin finding out. I actually have a couple of questions : 1) It is my understanding that the X chromosomes in the female actually get mixed up from one generation to the next , so that the female , when passing down an X in an egg, passes a chromosome that is not an identical copy of one of the ones she received herself. It is a mixture of different genes from each X. (2) The Y chromosome is passed down intact just as received from the father, and his father before him - so in other words , my Y is the same as my fathers and his fathers before him, all the way back generations . Is this a correct understanding? I really appreciate any help I can get with this . I want to understand this subject better.