The X in Sex by David Bainbridge
Lysaught, M Therese
THE X-FILE The X in Sex How the X Chromosome Controls Our Lives David Bainbridge Harvard University Press, 522.95,224 pp. M. Therese Lysaught Who would ever have guessed that the X chromosome...
...But do not be put off...
...What make Bainbridge's treatment of these fundamental yet complicated biological processes engaging are his literary style and wacky humor...
...Finally, Bainbridge follows many of his scientific comrades in overreaching when it comes to ethics...
...Social-justice questions are also important...
...And while he gives compelling accounts of how serious disorders can be traced to the activity or failure of the X chromosome, he does not explain how the X chromosome may "control" the lives of those of us who have been spared such illnesses...
...M. Therese Lysaught Who would ever have guessed that the X chromosome could be so entertaining...
...The second chapter, titled "The Duke of Kent's Testicles," reflects what can go wrong if one gets only one X chromosome...
...Despite these weaknesses, The X in Sex is that rare thing, a real page-turner...
...Three deficiencies in the book deserve mention...
...Human cells usually have forty-six chromosomes, two of which determine our sex-the X and Y. Bainbridge's essay is divided into three main chapters...
...Interestingly, how the sex of human offspring is determined is only one of many ways nature can do it...
...Illustrating that more is not always better, this chapter also explores diseases that disproportionately affect women, primarily autoimmune diseases...
...The final chapter takes up the question: If men can get along just fine with one X chromosome, how in the world do women live with two, since usually having an extra chromosome can be lethal...
...For example, he discusses the issue of sperm-sorting technologies that can be used in conjunction with artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization to determine a baby's sex...
...Although he outlines quite clearly how the Y chromosome determines male sex, he does not provide a parallel account of how the X chromosome determines (or influences) female sex...
...It focuses on the biology of what are known as "sex-linked" disorders...
...So what, by the way, is the X chromosome...
...The title may suggest a treatise dry, arcane, and- well, frankly, biological...
...For those who may think they have no particular reason to find the X chromosome read-worthy, just remember-we each have one...
...For example, he lets biology challenge the idea that humans exist only in two sexes (male and female...
...Provocatively, he also shows how one can read biological data either to support notions of women as passive, defective men or to demonstrate the superiority of women...
...Bainbridge's narrative weaves together the history of science, scientific heroes (including, importantly, women), key experiments, and chance events, highlighting how crucial the latter are to the advance of scientific knowledge...
...Granted, he treats the latter topics with far less depth, but he effectively shows how careful attention to biology radically complicates what we think of as "naturalized" social norms...
...The chapter begins with an imaginative account of how the mutation for hemophilia was introduced into the British royal family (thus the title of the chapter), but goes on to tell the story of the discovery of the genetic basis for hemophilia and other disorders like Duchenne muscular dystrophy and color blindness...
...How can we justify the use of limited health-care resources for such reproductive technologies when a high percentage of people within the United States and beyond go without basic medical attention...
...Here, in good detective-story fashion, is recounted how the sex chromosomes were discovered in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as also the many and varied ways sex is determined in the animal kingdom...
...While he exhibits remarkable nuance in his treatment of other disputed topics, he is benighted about the historical relationship between religion and science...
...Here we learn about the fascinating process of "X inactivation" (the fact that in all women, one of the X chromosomes in each cell is essentially turned off...
...If something happens to a gene on a male's lone X chromosome, it has no counterpart (on the Y chromosome) to counteract its effects...
...Bainbridge does not actually show "how the X chromosome controls our lives...
...Those looking for a lucid, up-to-date account of biology and genetics on questions of how biology, philosophy, and social practices intertwine will not be disappointed...
...Chromosomes are those paired structures in the nucleus of each cell in our bodies that are made up of DNA...
...His moral reasoning is essentially utilitarian and emotive...
...First, the title promises more than it delivers...
...No one will read this book without gaining a deeper appreciation of what connects us and what makes us all tick...
...This book will inform, delight, and challenge readers whose interests range from the scientific to philosophical, from pop culture to gender studies...
...Properly speaking, perhaps, the X chromosome itself may not put one in stitches, but David Bainbridge's The X in Sex: How the X Chromosome Controls Our Lives certainly will...
...A more satisfying analysis would have considered how such practices exacerbate tendencies to view children as commodities and are a first step in tinkering with our offspring for nontherapeutic reasons...
...The first explores the question of sex determination...
...In short, for Bainbridge, preconception sex selection is mostly a bad idea because of the effects it might have on society or how it might make individual offspring feel (either the child or the siblings...
...They are where our genes live, so to speak...
...He interweaves the story of biology with the history of science and philosophies of sex and gender...
...Second, although the book does not intend to explicitly engage religion or theology, the occasional aspersions Bain-bridge casts on faith and organized religion are unfortunate...
...These disorders are a unique phenomenon because they affect males primarily...
...How do X and Y chromosomes make us either male or female...
...In truth, biologists still know comparatively little about the X chromosome...
...Yet his utilitarian calculus prevents him from considering how sex selection becomes a tool reinforcing societal prejudices...
...He cautions that such technology might be the preferred alternative in societies where baby girls are less prized and routinely terminated...
...Bainbridge lectures in comparative anatomy and physiology at the Royal Veterinary College in London, and The X in Sex is first and foremost a book on biology...
Vol. 130 • October 2003 • No. 17
