"If you haven’t figured this out yet, this Substack is more than about retirement itself. It’s about the type of stuff that people like me have time to think about after they’ve retired." - This is so true about retirement. I love having the time to think about things I would not have had time to think about while working, as I would have been too busy thinking about things related to work. At the moment, I am thinking about what constitutes "biological sex" and "biological woman". The reason? Yesterday, the UK Supreme Court ruled that 'the term "woman" is used in the Equality Act it means a biological woman, and "sex" means biological sex.' As a retired biomedical scientist, I am struggling to define what "biological woman" and "biological sex" mean. Some argue that if you are born with two XX chromosomes, you are a woman, and a XY, a man. But, what about people who are XXY (Klinefelter syndrome, present as a male)? The person has two X chromosomes and also an XY. Or XYY (Jacobs syndrome), again male but without two Xs. Or XXX. Plus, you can get situations where some cells in the body are XX (female) and some male (XY). It happens. And, some cells lose their Y chromosome and end up with just an X. Moving away from chromosomes, some people with XY (male) appear as female (Swyer syndrome). Some people born XX, present as male and not female. These issues are typically due to faulty signals in development. It's all very confusing. Anyway, sorry Stephen for clogging your comments with this....
Nick, thank you for writing this. I am always frustrated when the law and government do not consider science, engineering, or medicine. It's why I appreciated by the U.S. Congress creation here of the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and National Institute of Health (NIH). These national academies were systems that were supposed to help prevent the situation we're in right now on a variety of fronts. I am dismayed that the current disregard we're observing in the US in the current moment has extended to the UK.
"If you haven’t figured this out yet, this Substack is more than about retirement itself. It’s about the type of stuff that people like me have time to think about after they’ve retired." - This is so true about retirement. I love having the time to think about things I would not have had time to think about while working, as I would have been too busy thinking about things related to work. At the moment, I am thinking about what constitutes "biological sex" and "biological woman". The reason? Yesterday, the UK Supreme Court ruled that 'the term "woman" is used in the Equality Act it means a biological woman, and "sex" means biological sex.' As a retired biomedical scientist, I am struggling to define what "biological woman" and "biological sex" mean. Some argue that if you are born with two XX chromosomes, you are a woman, and a XY, a man. But, what about people who are XXY (Klinefelter syndrome, present as a male)? The person has two X chromosomes and also an XY. Or XYY (Jacobs syndrome), again male but without two Xs. Or XXX. Plus, you can get situations where some cells in the body are XX (female) and some male (XY). It happens. And, some cells lose their Y chromosome and end up with just an X. Moving away from chromosomes, some people with XY (male) appear as female (Swyer syndrome). Some people born XX, present as male and not female. These issues are typically due to faulty signals in development. It's all very confusing. Anyway, sorry Stephen for clogging your comments with this....
Nick, thank you for writing this. I am always frustrated when the law and government do not consider science, engineering, or medicine. It's why I appreciated by the U.S. Congress creation here of the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and National Institute of Health (NIH). These national academies were systems that were supposed to help prevent the situation we're in right now on a variety of fronts. I am dismayed that the current disregard we're observing in the US in the current moment has extended to the UK.
I didn't enjoy the past-tense in the above..... "were systems"..... very sad.