When she’s a bigger beast
QUESTION Are there species where males are significantly smaller than females?
SEXUAL size dimorphism is common in the animal kingdom.
There are two competing evolutionary forces at work. Males must fight for access to females, which select for their size and strength.
Fecundity (offspring produced) is increased by larger female size, but in placental mammals with limited litter size, the increasing male size dominates.
Male mammals are normally the larger. An exception is the spotted hyena, where the female is the larger and, curiously, has external genitalia which mimic that of the male. The packs are led by females. In birds, sizes are similar, though some female falcons are larger, possibly for hunting purposes to raise broods.
Male dominance is less clear in reptiles, with female snakes often larger. In amphibians, fecundity forces dominate – think of the amount of frogspawn produced by one frog – and female frogs are larger than the males.
One of the most extreme examples of sexual size dimorphism is deep-sea anglerfish. Females were found to have what appeared to be a parasite attached to them. However, this small organism turned out to be the male in a symbiotic relationship. The tiny male got all its requirements from the large female in return for sperm being always available.
In the invertebrate world, such as spiders, larger females are common. In social insects, females are larger than males, with a termite queen reduced to being a bloated egg-laying device.
Phil Alexander, Farnborough, Hampshire.
QUESTION When was the term anti-vaxxer first used? Is this double ‘x’ unique?
THOUGH this term is associated with modern times, it goes all the way back to 1806 – but without the double x.
In 1806, the Philosophical Magazine made reference to opponents of smallpox vaccination: ‘This popular work is a very fair exposure of the unprincipled means to which the anti-vaccinators have resorted to turn the prejudices of the ignorant into a source of dishonest emolument to themselves.’ This type of language is still deployed today.
The term anti-vaccinationist appeared in 1876 in The Lancet, the journal of the British Medical Association. From there, anti-vac and anti-vacc started to be used to describe people who were opposed to vaccination. The first use was in 1877, in a letter to the journal of the National Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League.
The use of the double x appeared at the end of the 20th century with the emergence of groups opposed to the MMR vaccine. The term is known to have been in use in the US by 2009, when it appeared in the Pittsburgh Gazette.
Other words that contain a double x include ‘doxx’ (publishing personal data without permission), Zaxxon (an early video game) and Xxencoding (a binaryto-text translator).
A number of pop/rock acts have adopted a double x in their names, such as electronic band Basement Jaxx and Mötley Crüe rocker Nikki Sixx. It is also found in American spelling, where it can replace ‘ct’ in words such as connection.
Anti-vaxxer made it into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2021, probably because it was used so often during the pandemic.
Bob Dillon, Edinburgh.
QUESTION Was Dan Brown a failed musician before writing his bestselling thrillers?
DAN BROWN is a literary phenomenon. Maligned by literary critics, he is nevertheless hugely successful, having sold more than 200million novels following the exploits of Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of history of art and ‘symbology’. Works such as The Da Vinci Code explore our fascination with religious secrets, codes, symbols and conspiracies.
However, his artistic career began with music – and it wasn’t so successful.
After university, Brown began creating animal effects with a synthesizer. He composed a piece of music called Happy Frogs that replicated the sound of amphibians in a pond. This was the beginning of his first musical project, a series of animal tunes for children.
He self-published the cassette SynthAnimals in 1989. Tracks included Suzuki Elephants and Swans In The Mist. The cassette was accompanied by the Itsy-Bitsy Book Of Animal Poems.
Despite it selling only 100 copies, Brown launched the record company Dalliance in 1990. This led to his second self-published CD of synth music, Perspective.
He joined the National Academy Of Songwriters, the artistic director of which, Blythe Newlon, took Brown under her wing and helped produce his eponymous 1993 album. This featured Barry Manilow-esque songs, complete with lush orchestration and Kenny G-like sax.
It included spiritual songs such as Birth Of A King and Real, a song foreshadowing his literary output: ‘Just your footsteps
On Sacred ground I forsake these vows that bind me I renounce this silent faith.’
Brown followed up his debut with 1994’s Angels And Demons, a title he’d recycle for his first Robert Langdon book in 2000.
During a holiday in Tahiti before its recording, Brown had his eureka moment after devouring a second-hand copy of Sidney Sheldon’s Doomsday Conspiracy.
He’d discovered his future was writing novels, but he didn’t give up on music.
In 2003, the year he published The Da Vinci Code, Brown released Musica Animalia, a children’s CD of 15 tracks, with the proceeds going to charity. Janette MacKay, Uckfield, East Sussex.
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