Jun

28

Testosterone and mercury, in a tropical tango

June 28, 2009 posted by indiatime |

A recent study by University of Minnesota scientists has concluded that humans and animals delay reproduction when resources are scarce, living longer as a result. “..Food scarcity is a signal that population is likely to decline, so reproduction is delayed..”, concluded the study. The study also cited fluctuations in testosterone levels as an example of how the environment and organisms interact to guide reproduction.

To me, those conclusions don’t seem to hold water here in India. The natural resources, including food and water have been scarce for a long time in this part of the planet. Starved or satiated, urban or rural, northerners or southerners, hungry or thirsty, literate or illiterate, Indians over last several centuries, seem to have had very high levels of testosterone levels. In fact, scarcer the resources, higher was the reproducing rate, sending the population over a billion, dwarfing the rest of the planet in reproduction rates.

But why just humans, even animal behavior in India pretty much thwarts the Minnesota study. Stray animals and urban pigeons, seemingly fighting for scant resources, seem to be reproducing at astonishing rates all over India, especially in big cities where resources would be expected to be scarcer.

And in those same big cities, the human population, fighting for water that shows up at their taps only a few minutes per day and standing in long lines over pretty much everything else, doesn’t seem to mind that scarcity. No matter what the conditions, people don’t seem to be able to keep it in their pants.

But that’s a fact that scientists from colder regions just can’t understand, I think. Up there in Minnesota, with the outside temperatures dipping close to zero, the scientific imagination seems to shrink a bit, probably because of a brain freeze. Here in the hot and humid tropics, testosterone and mercury seem to be in a perpetual embrace, doing a hot sexy tango. Add a dash of scarcity to the heat and you really can’t tell between humans and animals.


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5 Comments so far

  1. Vinoy on June 28, 2009 7:38 pm

    I am in total agreement with you.Lack of food, lack of education, lack of recreational means, religiosity - they all contribute to the increase in copulation leading to increased population.And India is the best example.We are, indeed, capable of proving any research finding wrong.Mera Bharat Mahan!

  2. PK on June 28, 2009 10:52 pm

    This theory doesnt apply to humans.Women produce egg regularly every month and we are probably the only species where sex is for pleasure. All other species have control on ovulation and ovulates only when the conditions are favorable to propagate species.

  3. Vinoy on June 29, 2009 5:06 am

    That’s right. So long as there is no azoospermia or severe oligospermia, fertility of a male is not affected.After all, it requires only one spermatozoa out of millions to fertilize an ovum!

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