It's Monday, July 2nd, 2018, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds. I'm Andrei Viscontas.

And I'm Kishoreh. Each week, we bring you a new in-depth exploration of the space where science, politics, and society collide.

We endeavor. We endeavor to find out what's true, what's left to discover, and why it all matters.

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I have a soft spot for science history, so let me take you on a historical journey.

So picture it, 1848, Germany, we're in the backyard of a scientist.

He has a number of chickens running around, some roosters, some hens, but he has a question. So he wants to

know why those roosters seem so much more, you know, full of life. They're always chasing the

hens around. They have like the different colored display that's going on. Why are they so different?

Well, if we go back to my interview with Karen

Bondar, we'd say that the chickens are spending a lot of their energy making their expensive

gametes, the eggs. So what does this scientist do? He castrates the roosters, of course.

Like, that's the natural thing to do. So he castrates a roosters and he sees that the roosters tend to calm down.

They actually have color fade from some of their plumage, especially around their head.

Wow.

And notices they're chasing the hens less.

There must be something going on with that magical organ he just cut off, right?

Well, he takes it a step farther.

He has a pair of roosters and he decides to castrate them again.

...