The Mighty Ribozyme

This Is What Planned Parenthood Has Actually Done For People

getting a blowjob is a sexual thing and it also does not ‘feed’ anyone whereas breastfeeding is literally not even a sexual thing a baby is having food that they need to live like it’s nowhere near on the same level as getting a blowjob omg

if you are uncomfortable seeing a woman breastfeeding then that is your problem because you have oversexualised breasts so much that you can’t even stand seeing them being used for their actual purpose and also you’re an idiot

1.) Breasts as sexual fetishes is a (largely Western) cultural construction. Yes, it’s a fetish – anything you are sexually attracted to that is not the genitals of an adult is a fetish, or paraphilia. My professors have met non-Westerners who think our men are “like babies” because they are attracted to breasts.

Breasts ≠ genitals. Scientifically, they are considered secondary sexual characteristics – same category as facial hair. They can be sexual in a sexual context, just as necks and feet can be. But their primary purpose is reproductive.

2.) Breastmilk is not a “bodily fluid.” It is FOOD.

It is not categorized by the CDC as a biohazard, and so no you don’t need to freak out if your coworker wants to store her milk right next to your Lunchables.

MOREOVER,

Breastmilk is not just protein and vitamins. It is a living, dynamic substance that BUILDS HUMANS.

It has hundreds of ingredients (<— actually that list needs to be updated because they’ve discovered more already). There is a lab at the University of Washington St. Louis, where they have written all of the ingredients of human milk on the wall – They have run out of room on that wall. Among those ingredients:

The exact ratio of protein-sugars-fats that human infants need (cow’s milk doesn’t even come close)

Antibodies to pathogens in the baby’s environment (synthesized by the mother within hours of coming into contact with a given pathogen) and other immune factors

Stem cells. FUCKING STEM CELLS. (They used glow-in-the-dark mice to find out what they do!)

Hormones (support growth and regulate behavior)

peptides

Self-digesting fats (what the whaaat)

Growth factors

water, vitamins, minerals, carbs, etc.

prolly other awesome shit we don’t even know about yet because we’ve barely scratched the surface of this research!

These ingredients change hour-to-hour according to the baby’s needs. It will even add more water on hot/dry days. Fuck, breastmilk kills cancer in a petri dish. Breastmilk. is. not. a. bodily. fluid. It. is. liquid. gold. 3.) When you tell a woman to go to the bathroom to breastfeed, you are perpetuating the notion that it is dirty and shameful and needs to be hidden away. This idea is the biggest barrier to achieving breastfeeding goals in the United States. Because women feel ashamed, they often stay isolated at home when they should be spending time out and about with friends and family and having, like, a life. This isolation can contribute to postpartum depression. From the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding: Women may find themselves excluded from social interactions when they are breastfeeding because others are reluctant to be in the same room while they breastfeed. For many women, the feeling of embarrassment restricts their activities and is cited as a reason for choosing to feed supplementary formula or to give up breastfeeding altogether. And since we have this culture of shame and privacy surrounding breastfeeding, young girls and women don’t see it enough to learn what is normal/not and how to do it, so they often give up when they run into problems because they don’t realize there’s an easy fix. Moreover, an infant needs to be integrated into society in order to develop properly. He/she needs to see faces and hear voices. Isolating them – or throwing a blanket over their head – takes this important component of their development away. It also often annoys them because they are understimulated. 4.) YOU NEED TO SEE IT. That’s right, YOU. Even if you are a dude. Maybe you aren’t a parent, but you probably have loved ones who are. Or you might become one yourself someday. And if you are American chances are you have no idea how breastfeeding actually works, because you never fucking see it. It’s messy and complicated, and hard. It used to be a part of everyday life, because there weren’t any alternatives – So we learned how to do it by being around it all the time, NBD. The whole sexualization/modesty thing surrounding breasts wasn’t a thing until like the mid-20th century. Check out this 1871 drawing of a woman breastfeeding IN FUCKING CHURCH:

Throwback from August 2014!

The blue shows the gap between US public and scientists. So, on the safety of eating GMOs, there is a 51 point gap (quite large) between the public’s perception and scientific findings. So, while the public generally doesn’t accept GMOs to be safe, the data show that GMOs are equal or superior to non-GMO crops. Ironically, and rather disturbingly to me, this is why I avoid posting on GMOs or food generally - the attacks I get on my blog are overwhelming. It’s a bizarre inversion of, say, the current vaccination argument where the public pretty much defers to and cites the science of inoculation. Anyway, I hate talking about food.

The chart also shows a significant gap between public perceptions on human influence on the climate. I’m surprised by the small gap on whether or not the ISS is a good investment.

Professor Stephen Stearns, from Principles of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior: Lecture 1.

I’m doing one of Yale’s open Biology courses and it’s blowing my fucking mind.

Women of Color Working in STEM Fields Are Frequently Mistaken for Janitors 

Almost half of Black and Latina women working as scientists have been mistaken for a janitor or administrator of their offices, reveals a new report on the experiences of women of color working in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.

"As one Latina statistician told researchers, “I always amuse my friends with my janitor stories, but it has happened not only at weird hours.” She calmly informed someone that she had the key to the office, not the janitor’s closet.

That detail is part of “Double Jeopardy: Gender Bias Against Women of Color in Science,” the new report by the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California that surveyed 500 female scientists and conducted in-depth interviews with 60 more. It provides a damning look at how gender and racial bias impacts women’s mental health and careers.

The conventional wisdom is that women don’t work in the sciences at the same rate as men because of a lack of early encouragement for girls to pursue STEM careers and because they’re more likely to leave careers to have kids. But the interviews show that those explanations leave out the hostile and discouraging environment that many women face in male-dominated classrooms, offices, and labs. Of the 60 scientists interviewed in the report, 100 percent reported that they had experienced gender discrimination during their careers. More than 75 percent of the African-American women scientists surveyed reported having to prove their intelligence over and over again. They feel they can’t afford to make a single mistake.”

Read the full piece here

Photo caption: Teenage scientist Alexa Dantzler works in a chemisty lab at Emory University. Photo by Isabelle Saldana.

How to build a human…

An animated gif by hellofromthemoon (reddit)

If this gif had a soundtrack it would definitely be THIS

Try it.

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