to think this is basic biology?

[juneybean]

Just caught the back end of Million Pound drop where the question was What determines the gender? The Egg or The Sperm.

The couple in question honestly didn't know the answer and I have just asked a friend and she didn't know either.

I seriously thought it was common knowledge

"I am sure however that there are plenty other subjects which I am knowledgable about, that I would consider to be basic facts, which many of you smug gits didnt know."

Volauvent - yes it is, it's also probably mentioned at KS3.

I still find it strange that people are saying "I don't need to know this because it's biology" - most of us have children, or are intending to. Surely some vague interest of how it all works comes along with that?

But who has said they actually don't need to know, rather than it's not particularly relevant to everyday life and therefore was buried somewhere?

I know I knew once but would have had to have a good think about it to delve down and retrieve it again, just because I hadn't needed to think about it for a bit.

Incidentally out of curiousity I asked DS this question. Year 9, level 7s across the sciences in top quarter of the top set, accepted for triple science GCSE and he didn't know. So perhaps in some curricula it isn't taught until a bit later.

Unless he really is as dim as me and the teachers are lying to keep me quiet :o

I also know what "endoplasmic reticulum" is. Do I get cookie points?

Btw, I do accept it's basic science, it clearly is, just didn't like how it was used as a stick to beat the 'thickies' with. It is a retained fact, it doesn't encompass the ability to analyse and reach independent conclusions etc etc. And certain facts may be retained by some more than others, and vice versa.

I am near genius level intelligent and I didn't know that, so you can't expect normal people to

They're not "thickies", they're ignorami. HTH

Basics of human reproduction is not as 'useless' (in daily life) a subject as for example, parts of the cell like endoplasmic reticulum.

Thick and idiotic were some of the terms used. HTH. And no-one said it was useless!

Razzoo

Dilys - Very true. That should probably be ignoramuses, though [pedant]

Not relevant to everyday life therefore buried somewhere = not used in everyday life = useless in everyday life.

Very similar phrases if not completely the same.

OMG, please don't tell me people are this stupid. Basic biology.

'Not used' does not equal 'useless'! Unless you want to start getting into the basics of the English language...

"OMG, please don't tell me people are this stupid"

Not stupid just ignorant. I am very well educated and I couldn't remember. I last did biology in 1973 and can't be expected to retain everything I learnt then.

But I can remember how to get an A grade in Business Communication in the CIM exams and when to use the subjunctive in French. But that is irrelevent as I am now officially stupid

Calm down. I didn't say anyone used that word. I used the word useless rather than explain not used in everyday life bla da bla and put it in quotes to say not really.

You went on to say Very similar phrases if not completely the same

You are really going to bang on about this, aren't you.

I'd be happy to oblige most days, but I'm not in the mood tonight.

Not really, just wanted to clear up what appeared to be a misunderstanding of an earlier comment. Apologies if there in fact wasn't one. That is all.

So what's the deal with all embryo's being female until something changes them to male? Isn't that why men have nipples? Is this true or RadFem shite?

Aren't they 'sexless' (in a rudimentary non chromosomal sense!) until hormones start kicking in and the sex organs develop? But the idea arose that they're all female until then because the template appears more female than male?

There are various pertinent genes on the Y chromosome that will steer an embryo down the path towards male physiology. If those genes don't happen to be working, then you get an embryo which develops as a female but would genetically, technically, be male.

So you've got to have those Y chromosome genes present and functioning in order to get a foetus that appears physically male. If not, you get one that appears female.

I thought it was basic biology that you learnt early in secondary school. Discussing it with the OH when it was on all I could think is that under that much pressure, a 50/50 chance of winning £125,00 and you are on national television, your brain might start to slightly malfunction and you don't think straight. Especially as that last question is normally a stupid trick question where nobody knows the answer and it is always more of a punt. I was surprised the final question was so easy and started to doubt myself in my own living room

Off topic re: sperm but relevant to the 'secondary school basics'... I was in Sainsbury's today and a couple of teenagers were hanging around the cream section trying to determine which was free with the strawberries. The boy picked up a 600ml carton of cream and they said to each other 'Is that 150ml?'.

I did smile when I said 'No, it is not!' but inwardly I was a bit depressed.