https://www.wsj.com/articles/wokesters-in-search-of-nonbinary-birds-1d65ed47?mod=opinion_lead_pos11
The politicization of formerly respected scientific publications is one of society’s more disturbing recent trends and it seems that yet another periodical is willing to surrender its claim to authority.
Laura Helmuth, Editor in chief of Scientific American, recently tweeted:
White-throated sparrows have four chromosomally distinct sexes that pair up in fascinating ways
P.S. Nature is amazing
P.P.S. Sex is not binary
Other Twitter users were not impressed. Ms. Helmuth’s missive now carries an attachment from Twitter:
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
White-throated sparrows have 2 sexes with 4 unique chromosome combinations.
There are still just 2 sexes that produce either sperm or eggs.
The female types are the white-striped females and the tan-striped females. The male birds are white-striped males and tan striped males.
One can debate whether and how Twitter should address errors in user comments, but it’s clear that the operators of the social media platform are not the only ones raising an objection to the claim of a sparrow with four sexes
