Boy Frogs To Girl Frogs; But What About Us?
12 Dec 2010
Where is “peace on earth” this holiday season? Problems continue in Iraq and Afghanistan. Senseless killings occur almost daily in our major cities. Women continue to be raped and physically abused all over the world. Daily newspapers and TV news shows repeat the indisputable fact underlying this trend. Most of these crimes are committed by men. So could a frog experiment help to end these senseless acts?
Maurice Chevalier used to say “Vive La Difference” when talking about males and females. And the often quoted phrase that “girls are sugar and spice and everything nice” is, with rare exception, true.
Like Chevalier, I too, have always been happy with “La Difference”. And pleased that, with some exceptions, females do not possess the deadlier side of the male brain.
Statistics this holiday season are appalling. Studies show that men are 11 times more likely to commit murder. They cause 98 percent of sexual assaults, 93 percent of armed robberies and one in three women worldwide are either physically or sexually abused by men.
Consider the treacherous Ponzi affairs in recent years. It’s the dastardly deeds of Madoff, Earl Jones and others who have wiped out the life-savings of thousands of honest people. They are all men. So is there any way to change men’s behaviour and make them more civilized?
Tyrone Hayes is professor of developmental endocrinology at the University of California, Berkeley. He reports in The National Academy of Sciences Journal the proceedings of a fascinating experiment using Atrazine.
Atrazine is an herbicide that acts by blocking photosynthesis. Every year North America uses over 34 million tons of Atrazine to kill weeds. It’s also used to protect corn, sugar cane, cotton crops, and keep putting greens spectacularly green. But for years there’s been an ongoing debate by environmentalists about its safety. In effect, does it affect humans when it seeps into our drinking water?
To test the safety of this herbicide Hayes raised 40 male African clawed frogs from hatching to adulthood in a solution containing 0.003 percent Atrazine. 10 percent developed into what looked like normal females. But when two of the four where dissected they even contained female ovaries!
Hayes says these frogs had been “chemically castrated” and “completely feminized”. Moreover, of the Atrazine exposed males that did not develop ovaries, 80 percent could not produce male sperm.
Hayes, being a biologist, is concerned that Atrazine exposure is a potential danger to amphibians as their populations have been decreasing. It’s certainly a valid worry when this herbicide can turn boy frogs into girl frogs and 80 percent of the others can’t produce sperm. This is a better way to wipe out frogs that a nuclear blast.
But what intrigues me is whether this Atrazine induced endocrine disruption in frogs could be used to quell male violence. If researchers could find a way to inject a pinch of Atrazinte to remove some of the “boy” in humans, we might have a less violent world.
The question is why is it that males are the more aggressive and deadlier of the two genders? Is it due to the male hormone testosterone, often called the “Big T”? Is it a genetic trait? Is it because they are physically stronger than women? Or just that men are power crazy?
I believe the world would be in better shape this holiday season if women made more of the decisions. They would be less anxious to start wars and see their sons and daughters die in foreign lands. There’d be fewer Ponzi schemes, murders and inhumanity to all. Besides, women are considered to be smarter so wouldn’t our civilization be more advanced as we end 2010, if women ruled? Or am I naive, and it’s just a matter of picking your poison?
