Tadpoles, eunuchs and testosterone deprivation

[JesusA (imported)]

My research colleague, Prof. Richard Wassersug of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is currently a visiting scholar at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society, La Trobe University in Melbourne. He was recently interviewed for The Science Show on ABC Radio National in Australia, hosted by Robyn Williams. The program aired Saturday, May 22 and is 17 minutes long. The on-line summary of the program reads:

Richard Wassersug noticed a huge anomaly in the evolutionary trees of tadpoles when compared with frogs. This sparked 30 years of research into the range and variety of tadpoles. Part of Richard Wassersug's research has involved tasting tadpoles: graduate students were paid to taste tadpoles. They taste terrible. It is suggested this acts as a deterrent to predators. Richard Wassersug has also studied castration. He says castration is often used as treatment for prostate cancer, but there is too little discussion about its effects. Wassersug has noticed that many world leaders have been castrated. Accompanying castration is personality change, the major feature of which is agreeability. This assists, he argues, in handling complex arguments. The reverse is the testosterone-charged sportsperson who acts spontaneously, often with minimal thought. Richard Wassersug currently studies the effects of testosterone deprivation.

The link below leads to both the audio and a written transcript of the program:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/st ... 902972.htm

Richard’s comments on “agreeability” are from the second Eunuch Archive study and have not yet been published. The final questions on the survey were a short, and widely used, personality test so that we can compare eunuchs with other populations. The full results will be announced on the Archive once we have completed our analysis, but “agreeability” popped out as very distinctive of the group.

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[Riverwind (imported)]

Brings back memories of when we were all here a few years back, a wonderful week.

If you ever get a chance to meet Richard, he is a very intense and likable person, to get him going say tadpole, I even have a picture of him in a red outfit.

River