http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/jezebel.com.png http://jezebel.com/tag/male http://jezebel.com/tag/male New research shows that when mothers are exposed to some pesticides and chemicals during pregnancy, male offspring are born with smaller penises and feminized genitals. Chemicals used in some food wrapping, cosmetics, baby powders and flame retardants have been found to interfere with male hormones in vertebrate animals, including humans. "This research shows that the basic male tool kit is under threat," says Gwynne Lyons, who wrote the report published by the charity CHEMTrust, which drew on more than 250 scientific studies. [NY Post]

]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5104106&view=rss&microfeed=true Last week we noted that Japanese zookeepers at the Kushiro city zoo had trouble getting two polar bears to mate because they discovered that one of the female bears had been misidentified as a male. Why is it so hard to classify the gender of a polar bear? In short, because polar bears are very furry, especially "down there". However, one way to tell the gender of a polar bear is to see how it pees: if the urine looks like it is coming out of the belly, it is male; from the tail, it is female. However, most bears squat to pee, so even the pee test isn't a reliable way to classify the cuties. [Slate]

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