The biological process by which new individual organisms are formed.

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110 views

Which sex has higher variance of reproductive rate in modern societies - male or females?

Who has a more varied reproduction rate in modern western societies - men or women? The average rate is the same of course, but I wonder which sex have higher variance - higher variance means that ...
6
votes
1answer
88 views

Macromolecule levels in daughter cells after fission

When a prokaryote undergoes binary fission, how are the non-DNA macromolecules distributed between the two daughter cells? This is motivated by comments on a previous question and a G+ discussion. I ...
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3answers
308 views

Are human fetuses more likely to be male?

Question: From a physiological point of view, when sex is determined in a human fetus, is it equally likely to be male or female? Studies in this area typically measure age at birth, where the data ...
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votes
2answers
813 views

Why are not all species hermaphrodites?

If a hermaphrodite animal (like slug, snail, etc) finds a partner they can mate immediately. If another animal with "normal" reproduction (lets say a mouse) finds a partner they can only mate if they ...
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1answer
47 views

How might IVF (and related technologies) alter epigenetic marks?

I was reading up on KCNQ1, which encodes a voltage-gated potassium channel, and I discovered that it happens to be only maternally expressed. This is regulated by KCNQ1OT1, a non-coding RNA, which is ...
8
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1answer
93 views

Why does the gender of the parent species determines the species of a hybrid offspring

I've read a little about hybrid animals, and have been amazed by the fact that the gender of the parent species determine the species of the offspring, in some hybrids. A male horse and a female ...
5
votes
1answer
121 views

Is ovum + ovum fertilization possible for human?

In humans is it possible to fertilize a ovum with another ovum from the same female subject? I already found some works in which the ovum is fertilized by a somatic cell (see e.g. this ), but I am ...
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votes
3answers
325 views

Can the third sex be categorized as Male or Female?

Hijra are people who have a penis (not sure if sexually active) but look much like a female (perhaps for some feminine biological property). Wikipedia says they are "physiological males who have ...