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Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Answering your questions about life, Earth and the universe

We take your questions about life, Earth and the universe to researchers hunting for answers at the frontiers of knowledge.

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CrowdScience: Why Do We Have Males and Females?

Why Do We Have Males and Females?

05/05/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - CrowdScience, Why Do We Have Males and Females?

We plunge into the weird world of sex determination.

We plunge into the weird and wonderful world of sex determination and explore the many ways nature creates males and females.

Sex is responsible for the large variety of life on earth. Without the two sexes there is no sexual reproduction which means no shuffling of the genetic make-up – and no survival in a changing environment. But why do we have two sexes in the first place and does nature determine your sex? It’s with these questions and more that listener Du from Singapore persuaded the CrowdScience team to investigate the weird and wonderful world of sex. You might think that Nature would have standardised something as important as ensuring the continuation of the species. Far from it – species do sex in many different ways – some stranger than others. 

Presenter Marnie Chesterton unpicks the zoological oddities of sex and along the way learns about her own sex chromosomes. We also meet an unlikely bird keeper, who is the proud owner of a female duck that is morphing into a male. Will her boyfriend, a male mandarin duck, mind the change?

Do you have a question we can turn into a programme? Email us at crowdscience@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton	
Producer: Louisa Field

(Image: Male and female mandarin ducks. Credit: Getty Images)

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