Pill controls more than just the birth!

As you may know, several recent articles on psychology of love and attraction suggests that we subconsciously select mates that increase the odds of us having stronger, healthier children. One of the major factors in making this decision is how we perceive the smell of our potential mate. We naturally find the smell of those whose immune system is way different from ours more attractive [1]. Now, the thing I did not know and learned during the last Nerd Nite is that when a woman is on birth control pills, this natural selection does not work as designed. In fact, it works in the exact opposite way: the woman finds men with similar immune system to her own, attractive [2]. Then, say if things work great between them, they get married, and decide to have kids, and the woman goes off the birth control pill, what happens? She does not feel attracted to her husband. She wonders "what the hell have I done?". Who did I marry?! Interesting, huh?

[1] http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/smell-life/200902/the-scent-sex

[2] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=birth-control-pills-affect-womens-taste

Xenopus

I have not updated this blog for over a month! My apologies. I assure you that it does not mean that I have not learned at least one lesson a day though. Let's get back on the track.

A couple of weeks ago I attended Nerd Nite in DC! A nice way for a bunch of nerds to go out on a Saturday night, have some drinks, mingle, listen to some music and some funny, and yet scientific, lectures.

One of the talks was about Xenopus, a kind of frog that I had no idea was so important to us! This frog is a premier research tool in medical sciences, and also used in pregnancy tests! Did you know that if you mix Xenopus's egg with a pregnant woman's urine, they reproduce and multiply in hundreds and thousands? And that is how the tests work?

Ponder about this piece of information as lesson of the day. If you like to learn more about contributions of Xenopus to humans and science, read more here and here.