#I've had experiments fail because the AC in lab was down

[magical-awesome-kid]

hey so um. i just saw your replies on that mycology post with the terfs and how you can't say that humans only have two sexes 'cause of their sexual development and the chromosomes and also intersex people and i'd just like to say how your username fits (you're awesome!!!!) and you're so so cool and also i'm quite interested in the topic as a queer stem student and yeah.

anyways --- i admire you! and thank you!! <333

Holy shirt - thank you, but I'm really no one special. I'm just a nerd who is also queer :D

For anyone missing context:

A post I have on here was talking about how psychologists and scientists agree that gender and sex are WAY more complicated than just "are you a boy or a girl." Someone jokingly added a post where a type of fungus has thousands of 'sexes' (it's not the correct term because sex is not an exact thing in this specific fungi - I believe it was described as mating types - but it's the closest allegory to humans).

And the TERFs just. Went off.

So like, I'm a scientist. My degrees are in biochemistry and cell and developmental biology. I have so many years of studying biology, understanding how human sex may alter response to drugs, etc. I've almost exclusively been working on human-related research and in hospitals since I was a sophomore in college.

And I was just like "well, yeah! This fungus thing is cool! Because it shows that not all biological sex is binary!"

Then a TERF came after me. Which I then added "And humans don't actually have a black-and-white binary either! Because, even at birth, you can be intersex! And transition later in life also can mimic these intersex patterns!"

See, when one is born, as most of you will know, the doctor looks 'down there' and is like "Penis? Boy. No Penis? Girl." Except we have a lot more going on than just external organs. In fact, anywhere from 1-2% of the population, conservatively, qualifies as intersex based on the most recent research, meaning that they do not exclusively express sexual traits that would quantify as 'just girl' or 'just boy.' This is not new, either - intersex people have existed throughout history, and, depending on the era and place, it was either embraced as a sort of 'birth of a religious leader' thing or 'we need to get this kid in the binary fast' thing.

So I'm just. Nerding out. Because this is cool. Humans are weird. We - along with most animals - don't all fall into neat little categories. It's more of a spectrum - where 'male,' classically, is high testosterone, facial hair, testes, and penis while classical 'female' is breast development, vagina, ovaries, and estrogen. Again, please note that I am using 'male' and 'female' here to define ends of the spectrum (we don't have better descriptors at this time - English, get on that!), but most people fall in between - yes, even cis people. I myself have thick hair all over my body, and I regularly bleach a mustache even though I am cis female. A large portion of the AMAB population develops breast tissue.

But people keep trying to insist that it's one or the other. They want the neat little boxes where you are A or B, but science isn't like that. Genetics are weird. Enviromental factors come into play. And I haven't even touched transition for nonbinary and trans people. No, I'm just talking about people who are born and decide 'hey I agree with the letter on my birth certificate.' Humans are weird.

Someone was even like "uh, but we only look at what gametes you make!"

Well, person who is not cool and wants to ignore science, even if it came down to only 'what gametes do you produce,' then there are still four categories - those people that produce eggs, those people that produce sperm, those that produce both, and those that produce neither. There is no way to slice it that does not end up with more than two categories or can massively exclude members you would otherwise put into that category.

Like, if a 'man' is one who produces sperm, and a 'woman' is one who doesn't, this not only excludes infertile people completely - including bio males who have every other benchmark of classical male development - but it also then could bring people who may be considered female into this category if they had undiscovered internal testes or intersex people who have always expressed both classical male and female traits. How do you classify a guy who did produce sperm but may have lost his testes due to cancer or a physical accident? Is this person still male, or is this now not male? What about a person who is cis male but has a hormone deficiency and can't produce sperm until they are on hormone replacement?

As previously stated, sex is complicated. We consider factors aside from gametes - like primary and secondary sexual organs, hormone levels, etc - to all be part of biological sex.

Now, I'm not saying 'don't trust science because it's messy and always changing' - no, that's not the point of science. Science is using what we know as truth now to design treatments and care based around said facts, but a scientist is always looking to verify those facts, whether by examining the literature or performing their own experimentation. They control for the different factors that can alter the results as much as possible - think of if you go to the doctor and they ask about if you have a bleeding disorder before prescribing a medication because this med will thin your blood, causing further bleeding, or if you have gastrointestinal issues before giving you a medication that might make that worse even though it would treat the headache you came in for.

For some people, taking this medication for three days will fix all of their ailments. For others, this medication will fix one thing, but you'll need another. For even more people, you're basically prescribing sugar pills. Getting the flu for my 80-year-old grandma who has diabetes is a much more serious ailment than me, a relatively healthy twenty-something, getting the exact same virus. Humans are weird and messy creatures, and science is constantly updating to take that into account. Science is a series of 'yes' and 'no' down a diagram tree, where we get to a point that is the hopeful answer, and we keep adding new questions so that we can get the most exact answer. These branches cross and mix, where multiple branches may lead to the same answer while others may completely derail to another solution because one factor didn't quite fit.

Sorry, I'm getting off track.

ANYWAY yes, biological sex is complicated, more like a series of slider bars than two concrete containers, and, if a TERF wants to argue with me on that, I'd love to talk about gametes and sexual organs until the cows come home.

#Science is cool but it's also messy #Seriously I'd need a day and for you to come into lab with me just to see how the magic happens #I've had experiments fail because the AC in lab was down #I've had to exclude people from studies because they had comorbidities #Science #LGBTQIA

[theunaestheticstudyblr]

hi, I’m a Junior in high school, and I’m taking generals chem and chem lab through the local university. I skipped normal chemistry (mostly out of spite because the normal chem teacher is a butt) and self studied over the summer to prepare for the class.

so anyways I bombed the first test and got less than 50%. I have aced all of the homework, which albeit was a lot more difficult than the actual test, which was mostly easy concepts and things to remeber, while the hw was 50 comunulative word problems that included multiple properties from throughout the chapter. I should’ve gotten a good grade. I have kept up with all the other students who took normal chemistry last year, taken thorough notes on each chapter (4 per test), and watched videos and done all the chapter problems to check my understanding. I even created a study guide because our teacher doesn’t give one out!!!!!

But I just kept making dumb, stupid mistakes the entire test. Forgetting to square, dividing by avogadros number instead of multiplying, forgetting the amount of sig figs to estimate. I understand the concepts, but I just flub on the tests. How can I make sure I don’t repeat this?

TLDR: how do I not make stupid small mistakes on my general chemistry tests?

sorry about this long essay, I can’t really go to my parents or my professor about this, if this isn’t the type of thing you answer then don’t worry about it!

Hey love! I'm glad you're putting in the effort and I know it's so so frustrating. I definitely have experience with this and here's my advice:

Write down sig fig at the top/bottom of your test on each page. This helped me remember to count my sig figs. I had a super unforgiving teacher for Gen Chem who counted off even if you rounded wrong so this was big for me.

As far as messing up when to multiply or when to divide, there's a simple approach. Write down your first value that you're trying to convert. Then a multiplication sign and a line. Below the line, write a conversion value with the same units and above the line write the conversion to a new unit and continue until you get your desired units. I've added photos here to illustrate since it's hard to explain with just words (it is a genetic example but the process is the same). Then you multiply everything on top and everything on bottom and then divide top by bottom. Feel free to pm me if you need more explanation

A big thing too with constantly making small mistakes is that it's a sign that you're stressed and not thinking clearly. You are smarter than you know and you know more than you think you do. Maybe start a pre-test ritual to get your mind calm and clear and learn to slow down during the test.

It's super easy to get caught up in the stress and rush of a test, but learning to slow down and not be so focused on finishing in a small time can help so much. I chew gum a lot during tests to help give my mind a distraction and an outlet. I knew people who would close their eyes and count down from 10 with their breathing to slow themselves down too.

Overall, one failed test isn't the end of the world and obviously is not a testament to your knowledge or skills. If you need more advice or more specific advice, my pms are always open!

Good luck and hope this helps!!!!

#study blog #student #student life #studyblr #productivity #school #study hard #studying #school advice #answered asks #ask me stuff #ask me anything #asks #ask