The V-Word #273
July 11, 2014
Image from Wikipedia Commons
This week, we're looking at the social and biological science of female sex organs. We'll talk to Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center Institute for Regenerative Medicine, about the creation and use of lab-grown vaginas. Biology professor Marie Herberstein exposes the bias against female genitalia in scientific studies. And science writer Emily Anthes tells us about the history and promising future of female condoms.
Guests:
- Anthony Atala
- Marie Herberstein
- Emily Anthes
Guest Bios
Anthony Atala
Dr. Anthony Atala, MD, is director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC. He leads a team of 300 people who are working to build replacement organs and tissues in the lab. His team was the first in the world to engineer organs in the lab that were implanted in humans. Recently, his team reported success engineering vaginal organs for four women born with a rare genetic disorder in which their vaginas were malformed or absent.
Marie Herberstein
Marie Herberstein is a the head of the department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. She studies the behavioural ecology of invertebrates including spiders and insects within an evolutionary framework. She is interested in behavioural and evolutionary research, deceptive signals, and mating behaviour and sexual selection in spiders and insects.
Emily Anthes
Emily Anthes is a science journalist and author. Her new book is called "The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness". She is also the author of "Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts", which was longlisted for the PEN/E.O Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Emily's work has also appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Wired, Nature, Slate, Businessweek, and elsewhere. Her magazine features have won several awards, including the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award and the NASW Science in Society Journalism Award.
