Dr Adam Rutherford Profile picture
Jun 9 9 tweets 3 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
Oh come on, don't make me do this, please. The sun is shining, and it's a nice da... MALE SEA OTTERS DROWN FEMALES AND USE THEIR CARCASSES FOR SEX UNTIL THE FALL APART. DON'T BE FOOLED, THEY ARE ABSOLUTE FURRY ARSEHOLES.

Carry on.
Oh screw it.

Bottlenose dolphins form gangs and kidnap teenage female dolphins to sexually assault.
Fuck you Flipper.
Adelie Penguins masturbate openly, engage in transactional sex, and sometimes shag dead penguins.

Didn't see that with Morgan Freeman voice over.
Male lions eat baby lions if they think they are not the father. Chimps do too. Absolute bastards.
I'm very hot and tired.

Hermaphrodite flatworms Pseudobiceros
hancockanus mate with an aggressive head-to-head wrestle - ‘penis fencing’. The winner pierces the head of the loser who becomes the sperm receptacle and egg bearer. Pseudobiceros hancockanus
Bedbugs Cimex lectularius isn't that fussed about a specific entrance for sexual penetration. Males pierce the abdomen of a mate with a scythe-like aedeagus (equivalent to a penis), sperm will find their way to the eggs via internal organs. We call this ‘traumatic insemination’. Bedbug: Cimex lectularius
Male cuttlefish Sepia plangon look for opportunistic sex by changing colour patterns on the side facing the dominant males so that it resembles a female, and thus get ignored. Officially called ‘kleptogamy’ –stolen mating– but is universally known as ‘sneaky fucker strategy’.
That is quite enough.

Remember: Nature is not cute, it's grim, and otterly indifferent to your emotions.

HAVE A NICE WEEKEND.
Here's my book on this matter, a deeply humanist book, full of love of humankind, and nature. HONESTLY.

adamrutherford.com/bookofhumans

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More from @AdamRutherford

May 23
🚨 Genetics is PROBABILISITIC, not deterministic 🚨 This is a fundamental aspect of inheritance. The idea that being in possession of a certain version of a gene - an allele - determines a trait is incorrect, and you will fail 1st yr Introduction to Genetics if you write that.
Next: For the most part, the way we understand the influence of certain alleles - e.g. taste preferences - comes from studies in populations, and do not directly or deterministically translate to individuals.
The idea that behaviours are influenced by genetics is neither new nor surprising. EVERYTHING is influenced by both genetics and the environment. And here's where the history is important.
Read 25 tweets
Feb 23
I’m having a giant crumpet. I shall report back. I will confess I am suspicious.
Disappointing. As others predicted, the circumference to interior ratio (√2) makes for too much butter-soaked sponge and not enough crunch. Ruler for scale.
Side note: toaster tongs will change your life, swear to god.
Read 4 tweets
Feb 21
Creationists cannot help but lie:
1) Darwin spent time in Cape Town which is <checks atlas> in Africa
2) Social Darwinism has little to do with Darwin. European expansion used racist pseudoscience to justify subjugation, but it was nothing to do with Darwin - an abolitionist.
Darwin held opinions that were universal amongst his class - meaning that he held typically and not extreme racist and sexist views. It would be fairly impossible for him not to have these ideas at that time…
But he also argued against racial essentialism and observed graduation in characteristics, ideas that would be vindicated by genetics a century later. None of this had anything to do with Social Darwinism.
Read 4 tweets
Feb 14
You asked for it, a Valentines sex in nature thread 🧵
1) Adélie penguins: transactional sex: females will give it up for a smooth stone. Males copulate with dead females, their own offspring, other males, and sometimes ejaculate onto the ice. Didn't show that in Happy Feet.
2) Giraffes: the best evidence we have says that the vast majority of sexual encounters in giraffes are male to male, penetrative and ejaculatory, and follow bouts of necking.
3) Australian redback spiders never meet their dad, as his penultimate act of a male is to provide sperm to a female, and his ultimate gift to help with the pregnancy and guarantee his genes survive is a nutritious meal – his own head. This is called sexual cannibalism. #sexy
Read 21 tweets
Feb 4
This story neglects to mention that the attempted edits DID NOT WORK, but He Jian Kui implanted the edited embryos anyway. This is one of the most obvious violations of basic ethics, and yet here we are, a lecture tour around U.K. universities.

amp.theguardian.com/science/2023/f…
He was attempting to modify the CCR5 gene to introduce the delta32 allele, which when homozygous bestows immunity to HIV infection. BY HIS OWN results, the two embryos that became LuLu and Nana DIDI NOT carry this version, but new edits unknown to science or nature.
This is one of many scientific and ethical violations that should’ve shut down this experiment dozens of times over. And yet, here we are, a U.K. university lecture tour. Pigeons have a better understanding of bioethics.
Read 5 tweets
Feb 2
Hello. My latest book Control: the dark history and troubling present of #eugenics is out today. waterstones.com/book/control/a…
Some links: here's Bad Blood, the Radio 4 series, with everything from Plato to Trump, The Great Gatsby to Mendel, Francis Galton to designer babies.
bbc.in/3PF342Q
The reviews were generous - even the Daily Mail gave it 5* - but here's one by @questingvole in the Spectator.
bit.ly/3WRx5P6
Read 9 tweets

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