Never mind the limbic system; the ego has been more important up to about a
century or two ago ("I/My wife is fatter than you/your wife because I can
afford more food than you can!  Nyah nyah nyah!" etc.).

Anyway, most female mammals don't grow breasts until they're already
pregnant.  I don't know why humans do.

One word. ADVERTIZEMENT! "Lookie! I had a kid! Do me!"

Again, no.  One of the first places you *lose* fat when you become trimmer
is your chest.  If you get *really* thin, a la Kate Moss, your reproductive
system shuts down completely.  No periods or anything.

Well, it is a balancing act. If you can afford to keep enough fat on ya to
be big up there, then you're healthy. And being trim and keeping the
breasts big provides a large contrast. I am an experienced observer in
these manners. ,:> (W-chan mallets him)

Does this depend on what the drowned girl's orientation was?

Erm, I hadn't gotten to tha part yet. The menes don't give a flying fig
whether the girl's hetero or lesbian.

An endocrine system based off of Ranma's geneset.  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Which is why I feel that it is most likely that she will continue to be
attracted to girls.

Ranma's geneset codes for both being attracted to males as well as females.
The male-seeking codes aren't used, but are there nonetheless. It takes
only one gene to turn a hetero female into a hetero male, as it triggers an

Isn't sexual orientation determined by the doses of your mom's hormones you
get in utero, after your gender is set?  Then it would take one gene to turn
a blank-slate female into a blank-slate male, but hetero happens later.

Remember that the babe's producing his/her own sex hormones while its
developing. It is in fact the presence or absence of androgens and the
Mueler Inhibition Hormones that produce the secondary sex characteristics,
ie, the "equipment". The Big Gene just promotes the formation of Testes. It
is true that stressed moms have a higher incidence of homosexuality in
their sons. Of course, there might be a gene lurking somewhere that
reverses the normal relationship.

Nope. The only sex-relivent gene that the Y chromasome carries the
testis-generating gene. The rest of it codes for trivial stuff (hairy
knuckes, ect) and genetic junk.

Speaking of X's and Y's, in birds XY is female and XX is male.  Any ideas on
how this affects Mousse?

Female duck? :>

"I know how you feel, Saotome... I also 'change' in that way when hit with
cold water. Fortunately, the fact that I change into a DUCK distracts from
that fact. Except during the mating season, which is a pain in the rear,
literally."

or

"Why Mousse sit on eggs?"

"Cuz they're mine."

Heheheheeeee! Don't touch that one. _I_ want it. (Yeah, yeah, Yet Another
Fanfic Promise)

Yes there are.  I was volunteering in a hospital last year and I heard they
call it a social emergency.  Those kids get reconstructive surgery very
early; that's why there are so few hermaphroditic adults.  I didn't actually
meet anyone who had that problem, though - most of the patients were in for
snowblower accidents.

I think it's caused when the switching mechanism gets messed up (i.e. that
gender gene says "male-on female-off" but for some reason both the penis and
vagina genes get the "on" message).

What's happening here is that the Big Gene is the first link to an entire
cascade of events. The gene itself only causes testes to form rather than
ovaries. The rest is moderated through hormones.

In the above situation, a certain emzyme which turns testosterone into
dyhydrotestosterone is faulty. DHT causes the formation of the lower part
of the urethra rather than a vagina and a penis rather than a clitoris,
among other things. During adolecence, the DHT is still absent, but
garden-veriety testosterone causes the former clitoris to turn into a
penis. Ie, although the Big Gene is the first link, there are things that
might go wrong.

Wait a minute.  Girls also get a copy of the switch for sex-specific genes,
so it can't normally be on the Y.

Otherwise, boys would display only male traits (the female ones are switched
off) but girls would display both male and female ones (without a Y, there'd
nothing to switch off the male ones).

So there must be another gene somewhere else that does the switching.

procedure gender;
 begin
   IF ((c[43,1]=X) AND (c[43,2]=X)) THEN (g:=F)
   ELSE
   IF ((c[43,1]=X) AND (c[43,2]=Y)) THEN (g:=M);
 end;

Anyone else here remember Pascal?

Erm, no. A cell's not smart enough to recognize that X and Y chromasomes
are intrinsically different except during meitosis when they bundle up. To
a cell, DNA is DNA; it's the genes that are on it that counts. The Big Gene
makes a protien that turns ovaries into testes, so:

procedure gender;
  begin
     IF (bigGenePresent=True) THEN (makeTestis)
     ELSE
     makeOvary;
  end;

Forming the testes, which produce androgens, is the first step into
becomming male.

So if the Big Gene is present, either on the X or Y, then testes form and
the person becomse male (baring genetic flaws). If not, then ovaries form
and the person becomes female.

The Big Gene is normally found on the Y chromasome. It normally doesn't
participate in crossover, where the two chromasomes in a pair switch
sections. Sometimes it does, and the Big Gene can switch over to the X. And
since the cells don't really know the difference between an X and a Y, the
babes that get the X+ chromasome become boys and the ones that get Y-
become girls.

Like I said, one gene.

Good point.  That's how a grandfather can pass on male-only traits to his
daughter's son, and vice versa with a grandmother and her son's daughter.

Although the Y is a puny chromasome, it does contain a smattering of genes.
Hairy knuckes is passed on the Y; it's male only. MPbaldness and hemophilia
are sex-linked because the poor man has only one copy of the X, while women
have two (in most cases). If one copy of, say, factor ten is munged, then
women have a backup on their spare X, while men are out of luck.

Thus, when an affected grandfather passes on his genes to a daughter, her
father's goofy X is compensated by her mother's good X. Her children,
therefore, have a one in two chance of getting this goofy X, the other half
getting a good copy. The normal father, however, passes on a normal X to
his daughters (guaranteeing a good copy), and a Y to his sons (they need
the Big Gene to be sons), which leaves the sons depending on mom to get a
good copy. Half lose.

There are no specifically female sex-linked traits, except when activated
by hormones. Even if a woman gets two goofy X's for gene for MPbaldness,
she will not go bald because it's ultimately triggered by DHT, which women
don't produce.

Another good point.  A lot of standards can apply to both genders equally.
Remember last spring when Marisa posted her list of what she wanted in a
boyfriend and Kun-chan answered almost all the questions?

Heh! :)

                           ---------------------
-wyrm/dm(AKA Tom Jefferys; Time Lord for Hire, "Have TARDIS; Will Travel.")
<wyrm@mail.utexas.edu> {MOUNTAIN DEW ROCKS!!} <JEFFERYSTR@rascal.guilford.edu>
Member of the AFSS          Depraived Kawaii Thing of the First Order, Martin
   =<SIG>= Wyrm-chan @_@ H-Wyrm @_@ Ten @_@ Chibi-Usa @_@ Azusa =</SIG>=
=<^_^>= R1/2#_#BGC#_#Sailor Moon#_#Dr Who#_#Star Trek#_#Monty Python =</^_^>=

   Currently operating at <wyrm@middle.of.nowhere.void> for the time being

"Brag all you want, but don't get between me and the blood wine!"
                                              -Benjamin Sisko as a Klingon

Childras, the <wyrm@mail.utexas.edu> Mailbox Deamon
Still trapped in Eternal Crystal and loving it!