I had chickenpox when I was 5. At the time, I was going through a bit of a puckish phase. My parents indulged in my demands to only wear dresses. I have a vivid memory of itching my shins until blood appeared between the tiny pink hearts on the previously white tights. My sister wouldn’t get chickenpox until a few years later while on our family’s first trip to Disney…
Males are waste to Wolbachia. These tiny bacteria live inside the cells of many different kinds of insects, and as their hosts reproduce the Wolbachia can hitch a ride from generation to generation. But Wolbachia are only transmitted in the female’s egg cells; sperm are much too small to fit any bacteria inside. This means that for Wolbachia, males are a dead end, unable to transfer any bacteria on to the next generation. To maximize…
