Volume 52, Number 8 · May 12, 2005
Vive la Différence!
By H. Allen Orr
Adam's Curse: A Future Without Men
by Bryan Sykes
Norton, 320 pp., $25.95; $15.95 (paper)
Y: The Descent of Men
by Steve Jones
Houghton Mifflin, 252 pp., $25.00
The X in Sex: How the X Chromosome Controls Our Lives
By David Bainbridge
Harvard University Press, 205 pp., $22.95; $14.95 (paper)
The human genome is made up of forty-six chromosomes, the rod-like structures that reside in the nucleus of every cell. These chromosomes carry all of our genes, which, in turn, are made of DNA. Two of these chromosomes, called the X and the Y, are different from the rest: they are 'sex chromosomes.' Men carry one X and one Y chromosome, while women carry two X chromosomes. All the obvious physical differences between the sexes ultimately spring from this humble difference in chromosomal constitution.
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