Sperm is 'a Vector'
Yep--a vector--that's what California professor Richard Cardullo said. He's the big-name biologist who recently gave a talk to a bunch of middle school students about how killing sperm can save the planet. Of course, this is the same guy federal agencies chose to help redevelop the way biological sciences are taught in this country. (More details here.)
But let's back up a minute. If you're like me, you're wondering: What's a vector, anyway? Time for a quiz on biological science vocabulary. Let's do multiple choice to make it more fun.
In biology, a vector is:
A.) A warp-drive calculation developed on the Starship Enterprise to aid four-dimensional space-time navigation.
B.) A middle-eastern sand weasel distantly related to the pygmy marmoset.
C.) An organism that transmits disease by conveying pathogens from one host to another.
I'll bet you can guess the answer.
P.S. Here's a bonus question--If sperm is a vector, then what does that make a baby?
- Comment (32)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (5)
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
Comments:
Apr '12
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
Environmentalism has long since been a righteous haven for misanthropists,it's only natural they would spread to biology as well.
Mar '11
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
Man you give easy tests!
Sep '12
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
So if sperm is the vector, then it follows that the egg is vectorious?
Oct '10
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
Yet another Malthusian idiot. After a certain point, it gets boring.
Mar '11
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
Nathan Harden:
In biology, a vector is:
C.) An organism that transmits disease by conveying pathogens from one host to another.
To clarify, in biology a vector is any vehicle that transfers DNA to a new organism. Sperm can indeed be seen as a vector.
But everything else Prof. Cardullo says is unworthy of a molecular biologist anytime, anywhere.
Mar '11
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
Nathan Harden:
B.) A middle-eastern sand weasel distantly related to the pygmy marmoset.
I've been called worse.
May '10
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
Leave it to a collectivist utopian to describe human reproduction in terms of disease transmission. This is atrocious, ghastly, frightening, disgusting... My list keeps getting longer, and none of the pejoratives is too harsh.
Dec '10
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
Although I disagree with most of what Cardullo represents, as a biologist I long ago decided it was fascinating to consider sperm as a vector and pregnancy as a reaction. Its a useful organizing principle.
Consider how bodies react to infections: the swarming of components from the circulatory system, swelling, inflammation. Viewed as a step from assexual reproduction, the mechanisms associated with battling infections appear to form a handy toolbox for the development of sexual reproduction. In that thought experiment, cancer also seems to be a development from the more primitive battle against infection; the body, failing to recognize the cancer as an infection, instead nourishes it.
It seems crass, but strikes me as an appropriate way to envision how complex processes are built upon simple blocks.
Jan '11
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
For unwanted babies, there are specific "antibiotics", so to speak
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
Thanks Mendel:
That's a good definitional point. It's worth clarifying, however, that, in context, this guy was specifically talking about population control, and therefore seemed to be using them term to talk about population growth as a public health risk. He seems to be making an analogy between the risks of population growth and the risks of disease epidemic. He seems to be saying: think of sperm as if it were a pathogen in terms of its effects on public health and the environment:
More context here.
Mendel
Nathan Harden:
In biology, a vector is:
C.) An organism that transmits disease by conveying pathogens from one host to another.
To clarify, in biology a vector is any vehicle that transfers DNA to a new organism. Sperm can indeed be seen as a vector.
But everything else Prof. Cardullo says is unworthy of a molecular biologist anytime, anywhere. · 3 minutes ago
Aug '11
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
Yeh, sperm.
Feb '11
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
If sperm is a vector, then people are a disease.
The category "people" includes the students who were listening to this lecture.
What might be the impact on an emotionally-troubled adolescent of being told that he or she is a disease?
Apr '11
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
Vector is a 1974 novel that plays on the Dugway troubles.
Apr '11
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
I don't really get why there is such a fancy for controlling population rates, either making them go up or down. I mean populations take care of themselves. They expands and contract based on the resources available, and the viability of offspring.
For humans there are clear indications that obtaining high levels of prosperity and longevity reduce population growth naturally. If one simply advocates policies that promotes economic growth and development world wide they will invariably be contributing to shrinking population growth.
Mar '11
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
Nathan Harden: Thanks Mendel:
That's a good definitional point. It's worth clarifying, however, that, in context, this guy was specifically talking about population control, and therefore seemed to be using them term to talk about population growth as a public health risk.
I agree that Prof. Cardullo is depicting pregnancy and childbirth as a blight on society.
As someone who works with vectors (both pathogenic and not) every day in the lab, and is constantly defending conservatives from colleagues' charges that they misunderstand science, I just wanted to set the terminological record straight.
Besides, if Prof. Cardullo thinks the solution to our problems is killing sperm, I would retort that Americans seem to be doing a darned good job of that without his help.
Edited on September 25, 2012 at 12:47amOct '11
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
Population control is best led by example... Be the change you want to see Professor Cardullo.
Feb '12
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
Malthusian misanthropes.
I'm a big fan of derisive alliteration.
Edited on September 25, 2012 at 1:04amJun '11
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
Engage!
Jul '11
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
We were supposed to have run out of food by now, I think.
This is the classic problem with differences in world view. Money is limited, if one person makes it - another has to lose it. Resources are the same. Only a finite number of people can use them.
The trouble is that this number has constantly grown, and the numbers are revised - and a new generation of dooms day-er are born.
Jun '11
Re: Sperm is 'a Vector'
It's a little known fact that in the 24th century, the old saw "Any port in a storm" will be replaced by "Warp Nine...any heading."