Free Republic

Natural history specimens are widely used across ecology, evolutionary biology and conservation. Although biological sex may influence all of these areas, it is often overlooked in large-scale studies using museum specimens. If collections are biased towards one sex, studies may not be representative of the species. Here, we investigate sex ratios in over two million bird and mammal specimen records from five large international museums. We found a slight bias towards males in birds (40% females) and mammals (48% females), but this varied among orders. The proportion of female specimens has not significantly changed in 130 years, but has decreased...

Courtesy of Ben A. Barres NOW AND THEN Ben A. Barres as Barbara, age 34; and as Ben at 42. Perhaps it is inevitable that Ben A. Barres would have strong opinions on the debate over the place of women in science. Dr. Barres has a degree in biology from M.I.T., a medical degree from Dartmouth and a doctorate in neurobiology from Harvard. He is a professor of neurobiology at Stanford. And until his surgery a decade ago, his name was Barbara, and he was a woman. Now he has taken his unusual perspective to the current issue of...

A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) made it easier on Monday for workers to sue their employers for sex discrimination, ruling such cases can be proven with circumstantial evidence. The high court rejected the argument supported by the U.S. Justice Department (news - web sites) that workers must produce only "direct evidence" of discrimination under a federal anti-discrimination law. In the court's 11-page ruling, Justice Clarence Thomas (news - web sites) rejected such a heightened standard. Under the law, a plaintiff need only present sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to conclude, by a preponderance of the...