Gender bender
نویسنده
چکیده
“When it comes to sperm, you’re half the man your grandfather was”, the Esquire magazine headline proclaimed earlier this year. It’s the next Silent Spring, U.S. News and World Report declared, reflecting the views of U.S. Vice President Albert Gore. “Hormonal Sabotage” declared Natural History magazine, in a headline stretched across two pages. What’s behind all the fuss? Well, apparently humanity could be on the brink of extinction. Chemicals that mimic estrogen are ravaging wildlife and hitting mankind below the belt — lowering sperm counts and possibly contributing to testicular cancer. Endocrine disrupters are all the rage in the popular press these days. A serious matter, no doubt, but why do so many in the media let the rhetoric get so far ‘ahead’ of the facts? It’s not just to sell newspapers: journalists are storytellers by profession and we feel we serve our highest purpose when we’re raising an alarm. Although it has recently reared its head in the British and European press because such chemicals have been found in some brands of baby milk, this story actually starts back in the 1970s. Biologists discovered that the insecticide DDT, spilling from the drain of a manufacturing plant, was wreaking havoc on the wildlife off the coast of Southern California. One the effects was that about a third of male western gulls weren’t returning to their breeding islands, so the female gulls left behind paired up with other females. (In a 1994 story, the Los Angeles Times used this episode to proclaim that hormonedisrupting chemicals were turning seagulls into lesbians.) Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) caused similar disruptions, most notably in the Great Lakes region. DDT and PCBs are the two types of chemical most clearly linked to endocrine disruption in North America. Both have been banned for many years, and the affected gulls, pelicans, cormorants, eagles and other wildlife have bounced back dramatically. So why, one might ask, didn’t the headlines proclaim ‘Ecological Catastrophe Averted’? The answer comes down to how journalists, rather than scientists, deal with uncertainty. Although reporters are supposed to search out truth, we tend to err on the side of alarming, rather than reassuring the public. We are the watchdog barking in the night. It might not be a real intruder, but wouldn’t you rather be alerted to the possibility?
منابع مشابه
The validity, diagnostic value and replicability of Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test in traumatic brain injury patients
Introduction: Bender Gestalt test is one of the most famous neuropsychological tests that is simple and it can be used to examine brain injuries. The objective of this research was to investigate the validity, diagnostic strength and the replicability of the Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods: 240 participants were tested in a case-control st...
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The Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test as a group screening instrument for social maturity
Bender Gestalt 2 This study investigated the use of the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test (BVMGT) as a measure of social maturity. A group BVMGT was administered to 80 second grade children and scored using the Koppitz Developmental Scoring System. The Social Domain of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS) served as the measure of social maturity. It was hypothesized that there is a signif...
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متن کاملThe validity, diagnostic value and replicability of Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test in traumatic brain injury patients
Introduction: Bender Gestalt test is one of the most famous neuropsychological tests that is simple and it can be used to examine brain injuries. The objective of this research was to investigate the validity, diagnostic strength and the replicability of the Bender VisualMotor Gestalt Test in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods: 240 participants were tested in a case-control stu...
متن کاملDetermination of sensitivity, specificity and cut off point of visual- Motor Bender Gestalt Test in the diagnosis of traumatic brain injury
Background: Bender Gestalt Test is one of the most famous neuropsychological tests, simple and easy to perform, and is used to evaluate brain injuries. This study aimed at determining the rate of sensitivity, characteristic and cut-off point of this test in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods and Materials: Overall, 120 TBI patients with mean age of 31.25± 13.60 years old in...
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ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Current Biology
دوره 6 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 1996