(That sounds as if I’m about to comment on sex differences in productivity. No, these are entirely separate topics strung together in one post. But there’s an interesting nature-nurture debate there to return to. Are there sex differences in productivity, and if so, what causes them? My hunch is that this would all depend on what counts as productive, and would disappear at the broadest level of construal: amount of waking hours spent moving towards any goal.)
Hey Adam, glad you're still writing new posts ;) And fingers crossed on your research paper getting through review with reasonable feedback! One of the questions that immediately came up for me reading your latest write-up is to what extent chemicals that we take up -- either semi-intentionally through food sources, but also entirely unintentionally through air pollution, etc. -- do have an impact, both during gestation and later in life, on "sex functioning"...?
While it still seems somewhat far fetched, I can at least see that if one includes water coming from plastic bottles in the category of "drinking water", it may at least seem just a tad more plausible (see https://www.endocrine.org/news-and-advocacy/news-room/2020/plastics-pose-threat-to-human-health for instance). And so, I hope that similar to your rather fearless approach of writing on topics that are a bit, well, dicey, more researchers are willing to look in places where it potentially hurts a bit to look.
And with that: overall, I just want to say thank you for taking on topics that you find interesting, even if they might be considered "too hot" for others ;) Cheers!!
Hey Adam, glad you're still writing new posts ;) And fingers crossed on your research paper getting through review with reasonable feedback! One of the questions that immediately came up for me reading your latest write-up is to what extent chemicals that we take up -- either semi-intentionally through food sources, but also entirely unintentionally through air pollution, etc. -- do have an impact, both during gestation and later in life, on "sex functioning"...?
I know this is borderline "blasphemous" to suggest, but I also remember that -- among other outlets -- the Guardian very summarily dismissed claims made by RFK Junior that "(...) chemicals in drinking water could make children transgender." [second paragraph from this link: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/19/the-guardian-view-on-robert-f-kennedy-jr-from-camelot-to-conspiracy-mongering]
While it still seems somewhat far fetched, I can at least see that if one includes water coming from plastic bottles in the category of "drinking water", it may at least seem just a tad more plausible (see https://www.endocrine.org/news-and-advocacy/news-room/2020/plastics-pose-threat-to-human-health for instance). And so, I hope that similar to your rather fearless approach of writing on topics that are a bit, well, dicey, more researchers are willing to look in places where it potentially hurts a bit to look.
And with that: overall, I just want to say thank you for taking on topics that you find interesting, even if they might be considered "too hot" for others ;) Cheers!!