Self-Lubrication

            Over the summer, I had the immense pleasure of buying a new book called Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach. I learned many new things, but there’s one thing that stood out. You know when a woman is aroused, they self-lubricate right? It’s pretty awesome. Go us! Okay, stay with me. Turns out that self-lubrication is not a glandular secretion. It’s actually plasma seeing through the vaginal walls. That’s right plasma. The broth that hold blood cells. This is easily the most incredible fun-fact I’ve ever heard.

            When a man is aroused, blood rushes to their groin, fills their penis, thus creating an erection. In a woman, the blood goes in the same direction. The clitoris is engorged and plasma seeps through the walls. The Bartholin’s glands also provide some mucus for lubrication, but plasma is the primary lubricant. The main peptide hormone controlling this phenomenon is vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). In humans, VIP comes from the VIP gene. This main function of VIP is to increase blood flow. It is found in many regions of the body including the brain, the heart, and the small intestine. It has multiple functions, and one of them is stimulating self-lubrication by increasing blood flow. This lubrication is used to reduce friction during the act. If one is not aroused or cannot self-lubricate normally, painful sex can occur. Vaginal dryness can be the result of menopause, some types of birth control, and a disease called Sjögren's syndrome, which causes secretory glands in the human body to work inefficiently.

            Studies on sex are often considered taboo, and the researcher is sometimes heavily judged. Plus, approving a study on human sex has always proved to be difficult. There is still so much to learn about the human body, and sex is just a normal, evolutionary act. The entire point of science is to understand the world around us, and yet it is still hindered by societal norms and cultural constraints. Not only that, but sexual education is severely lacking in public schools. Personally, we weren't taught anything except that chastity is the only way to go. By providing proper sex education, we can prepare teenagers for a safer, healthier future.

Sources

“Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex,” written by Mary Roach

Vaginal Lubrication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaginal_lubrication

Why is vaginal lubrication important for women? http://www.issm.info/sexual-health-qa/why-is-vaginal-lubrication-important-for-women

Sjögren's syndrome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sj%C3%B6gren%27s_syndrome 

Nettie Stevens

          Since my article on Elizabeth Blackburn was a big hit and it lead an interesting conversation on telomeres, I figured why stop there? Let’s tackle another awesome lady scientist! Nettie Stevens born in 1861. She spent most of her life teaching to make enough money for college. She eventually went on to get her master’s degree at Stanford University, and she got her PhD at Bryn Mawr College. Her professor Thomas Hunt Morgan adored her and spoke very highly of her. Her mentor Edmund Wilson also supported her in her education.

            Nettie’s most notable research was on mealworms. She studied other insects as well, but let’s focus on the mealworms. She was studying their chromosomes, and she noticed something strange. The female mealworms had a pair of X chromosomes, while the males had a set of XY chromosomes. The Y chromosomes was named so because when Nettie saw the Y chromosome, it appeared as though it was a piece of an X chromosome was cut off, leaving a Y shape. This was the first official discovery of sex chromosomes. Before Nettie, scientists didn’t understand how sex was determined. People thought that the sex of the fetus was determined by the pregnant woman’s body temperature (warmer temperatures were said to produce males) and what the woman ate. Scientists had guessed that something else controlled sex, but they couldn’t figure out what. Nettie provided solid evidence that sex was determined by these special chromosomes. She published her work, but was met with criticism. At the same time, Edmund Wilson was also working on the discovery of sex chromosomes. Although Nettie’s research was better supported, she is often overlooked. Nettie died of breast cancer just seven years after she published her work, and she never got to see the impact she made on genetics. Fortunately, she is now starting to get the recognition she deserves.

            All right, so sex chromosomes were discovered, now what? What came out of this new information? Thomas Hunt Morgan’s research on Drosophila melanogaster was made possible by Nettie’s findings. Mendelian and chromosomal theories of inheritance were further supported with Nettie’s research. A few years down the line, the SRY gene was identified. This is the gene that controls typical male trait expressions. If SRY is expressed, you are determined as a male. No SRY gene, you grow to be a female. We gained a better understanding of sex linked traits and diseases. We found that XX/XY sex chromosomes were not the only systems. Lizard males, for example, have ZZ chromosomes. Scientists are beginning to understand that sex determination in humans isn’t as binary as we think it is. Nettie was an incredible scientist, who worked hard for her education, who was at the top of her classes, and who loved research with all her heart. She helped pave the way for the future of genetics.

 

Sources

Specialized Chromosomes Determine Gender: Nettie Maria Stevens: http://www.dnaftb.org/9/bio.html

Sex Chromosomes: http://www.biology-pages.info/S/SexChromosomes.html

SRY Gene: https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/gene/SRY

 
“Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World,” written and illustrated by Rachel Ignotofsky.

The History of the Micropipette

           One of the most important tools in molecular biology, or any other scientific field, is the micropipette. This extremely valuable tool is used to draw up and dispense small amounts of liquid samples. Despite the great value of these tools, their history is not well known. Honestly, the topic of the history of the micropipette does sound boring. Trust me when I say the story is far from boring. One article depicting a brief timeline of the micropipette even has “vampires” as a specific tag. We’re not here to discuss the possibility of vampires using early pipettes as a way to draw up blood, we’re here to talk about Heinrich Schnitger.
 

Heinrich Schnitger created the first mechanical micropipette in 1957. During his time as a postdoc, mouth pipettes were still used in labs. You know, those mouth pipettes that our lab manuals and our professors always warned us about? Mouth pipetting was not a pleasant experience. There was a constant danger of accidentally inhaling harmful substances. The pipettes required great accuracy skill. They were ridiculously hard to clean, and they tended to break a lot. Schnitger was so annoyed by mouth pipettes, he decided work on a spring loaded micropipette in the middle of his research. He literally disappeared for a few days to work on a new micropipette!

 

The new micropipette was a hit in the lab. Experiments went by faster, and the pipette was not corroded by the caustic substances they were using. His boss was so impressed he told Schnitger to take a break from research to keep working on the micropipette. Eventually, Schnitger realized that the improved micropipette was getting to be a huge sensation, and he applied for a patent, which was accepted in 1961. Schnitger continued to tinker and make adjustments to make the micropipette a more effective tool. Unfortunately, he died in 1964 before his invention started to become popular globally.

Later on in the 1980s, two men by the names of Henry Lardy and Warren Gilson used Schnitger’s designs to make their own version of the micropipette in the United States. They fixed it up, made it more comfortable to use, and turned it into the micropipette we know and love today. They did all this by using loopholes in Schnitger’s patent to create their own brand of micropipette.

It was Schnitger’s unique personality, his creative way of thinking, and his love for efficiency that helped him create one of the most revolutionary tools in science. When people think of scientists, they sometimes think of these stiff, humorless people in white lab coats. What people don’t realize is that scientists are one of the most creative groups of people on this Earth. They’re curious, they’ll put themselves in harm’s way for the sake of knowledge, and they’ll break rules to make a process better. Scientists come in all shapes and sizes, with all sorts skillsets and humors. Schnitger was one of a kind, and he made a one of a kind tool.

 

Sources

https://www.biotech.wisc.edu/outreach/resources/the-micropipette-story

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/19720/title/The-Original-Micropipette/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1369176/

http://futurescienceleaders.org/researchers2012/2012/09/history-of-pipetting/

Elizabeth Blackburn

There are a few famous scientists who actually study molecular biology. Mostly they study a field like genetics and use molecular biology techniques in their research. Elizabeth Blackburn is one of the few who’s field is molecular biology. She is originally from Tasmania, Australia and is currently teaching at the University of California San Francisco. For her PhD, she worked on researching the mysteries of DNA. There were still many things to be discovered about DNA in the 1970s. Elizabeth was absolutely captivated with DNA. She wanted to know everything about it. At the time, people understood that DNA was contained in tightly bound chromosomes, but the structure was still somewhat of a mystery.

Elizabeth focused on the ends of the chromosomes and discovered the makeup of these ends in 1980. The ends of chromosomes are made of telomeres. Telomeres are essentially segments of repeating DNA sequences. Those sequences didn’t encode for any RNA or protein. So what was their purpose? Why would chromosomes deliberately create non-coding repeating sequences? Telomeres are actually extremely important segments in chromosomes. Whenever a cell divides, a small part of the DNA ends is snipped off. The telomeres protect essential DNA sequences from being cut off curing cell division. With parts of the telomeres cut off, the DNA can express efficiently. Elizabeth’s discovery helped us understand the aging process better. As we get older, our telomeres get shorter, which leads to problems such as Alzheimer’s and cancer. A few years after discovering telomeres, Elizabeth also co-discovered telomerase with Carol Greider. Telomerase is responsible for keeping telomeres at an appropriate length. Too long or too short telomeres both result in issues that can seriously affect one’s health. For her contributions, Elizabeth was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009. Elizabeth’s work has opened doors to research not only in DNA, but also in medicine, cancer research, and research of the ageing process.

 

 

Sources

Ignotofsky, Rachel. “Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World.” N.p.: Ten Speed Press Publishing, n.d. Print.

"Elizabeth H. Blackburn - Facts". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 9 Sep 2016.              http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2009/blackburn-facts.html

“What Is a Telomere?" Yourgenome.org. The Public Engagement Team at the Wellcome             Genome Campus, 2016. Web. 09 Sept. 2016.

http://www.yourgenome.org/facts/what-is-a-telomere