Naxela
Naxela t1_jdj11hi wrote
Reply to comment by porkypuha in What happened to the old COVID variants, like Delta? Could they come back? by number1dork
A common rule of virus evolution is that viruses tend to evolve to be more contagious and less deadly. The rationale here is that a dead host is not a viable vector for contagion, and if your strain kills the host, then the strain dies along with the host body.
As a result, strains that keep people in contact with each other rather than isolated at home or in a hospital are going to be way more successful and will outcompete each other, and it goes without saying that of course the more contagious the virus is generally, the more successful it is as well.
Naxela t1_j6kux41 wrote
Reply to comment by elpajaroquemamais in TIL When a cow has opposite sex twins, the female twin is usually born intersex and infertile. This happens because the twins blood supplies are linked, which exposes the female to male sex hormones. by awawe
Intersex animals are still of one particular sex or the other. Truly hermaphroditic mammals are an extreme rarity. I don't think there's even known examples in humans.
Naxela t1_j6kuqgj wrote
Reply to comment by Seeksp in TIL When a cow has opposite sex twins, the female twin is usually born intersex and infertile. This happens because the twins blood supplies are linked, which exposes the female to male sex hormones. by awawe
Why would the male be affected? There's no source that could cause demasculinization in this scenario. Only the male twin is producing disruptive hormones here.
Naxela t1_jdy8ygf wrote
Reply to comment by Zadarex in Forcing dominant mice to lose social status induced depression-like behaviors and reduced pleasure-seeking by Zadarex
This is absolutely fascinating, thank for you sharing. Very relevant to the fields I work in, and I haven't been familiar as much with Dr. Hu's work as I apparently should be.