Sex As a Biological Variable, I would rather say gender, because sex can be a dangerous word in professional environment, not in social media, but we are serious scientists, talking to my co-worker, who said she would take Christmas climbing vacation in Ecuador, I asked you mean rock climbing or high elevation hiking, she said high elevation hiking, I said you still need crampons and ice axe. Somebody overheard what I said without the context, all the other person heard was “I sex” (ice axe). I still have a job no worries, but I am trying to avoid the word s** instead to say gender.
In 2016, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) implemented a policy which requires grant applicants to “consider sex as a biological variable (SABV)” in vertebrate animal and human studies. I do not write grants, I did not know about this NIH policy but I found this publication the other day, a follow up study, a peer-reviewed article describing that indeed in the last 2 years there was a significant increase in the proportion of grants that considered SABV in the research strategy and applicants who adequately addressed the incorporation of SABV into the experimental design, analysis and reporting.
When I started my career in the early 80-ies we did cancer immunology in-vivo experiments randomly and indiscriminately on male and female mice, we did not think there was any difference. Later I did monoclonal antibodies, I did not think of the spleen of the immunized male or female mice were different, either. Science is so advanced today since I did my first experiment, we recognize now that males and females are reacting differently as a result of different molecular mechanism, after all the gender difference in the spleen might generate different antibodies. We have just never studied that, it is time for the NIH to address it.
Well, I know for sure the taste of the male chicken is better, plus we all eat the un-balled male beef. As I did not consider of this gender difference in my scientific experiments, same way I did not consider the gender difference in the meat I eat, so I have to admit NIH has the right to warn me. It raises a new issue for me however, my traditional duck that I roast for Christmas is already in the freezer, all cleaned up, will be defrosted on the day before it jumps into the oven. I have no way of determining the gender of my Christmas Duck, so when I bite into the delicious meat of the upper thigh of the bird I will definitely contemplate about the open question of those are female or male. We must lobby for the gender identification on the food labeling of the meat we eat.
Good, the ice axe has no gender.
“Knowledge is always good and certainly always better than ignorance”–Sergey Brin
“Possideo genes ergo sum”—Anonymous Roman Philosopher
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