Last night, a friend and I visited the Science Museum for a Lates event about Sexuality. Not our usual Wednesday night, but it was truly one of the most interesting (and hysterical) events I have been to in a long time... and it was FREE! This was the first Lates event I have ever been to at the Science Museum, and the queue to get in really surprised me (apparently lots of Londoners were also intrigued by the topic of the night). Each person was given a wristband on the way in, colour coded for their sexual preference ("likes boys", "likes girls", "likes both" and "prefers not to say"). Once in, the phrase 'kid in a candy shop' comes to mind. Everyone seemed to revert to childhood, giggles filled the room as we explored over 30 activities, talks and workshops over the museum's five floors. After having a quick look around the galleries, our first port of call was Simon Watt's Science of Sex presentation, where he used examples from the animal kingdom to explain the biological drives for sex, cheating and mate preference. Simon spoke about the elaborate development of male peacock feathers as well as the reasons behind lionesses and female bonobos mating with several males. It is thought to be a method of confusing the males and avoiding infanticide, as a male would usually kill the young of another male, but would not kill one of their own. I found it particularly interesting that female bonobos are most sexually active when they are 3 months pregnant, just before they begin to show. Mate guarding was another topic of conversation, with an example of a millipede where the male essentially rides on the female's back once they have mated to make sure no other males try to join the party. A particularly amusing moment came when Simon talked about monogamy: "A lot of the animals we thought were monogamous, aren't. It turns out we were not watching them closely enough". He also compared images of Legolas and Aragorn to explain attraction in humans, however this part was lost on me, as I will forever find Orlando Bloom way more attractive than I should! After a brief talk with the man himself about barnacle and fruit fly penises (or how he put it, "Wangs of the World"), we headed off to the next talk on Sex Addiction and Science. The main question being answered was whether sex addiction existed or whether it was an excuse for those with a high sex drive. The answer? Yes, it does exist. Essentially, it is like any other substance addiction, as the main driver seems to be the release of Dopamine, providing an instant "hit". The talk compared sex addiction to alcoholism in the formation of habits, and with over half the people in the room clutching beer bottles and cocktails, a few uncomfortable glances were exchanged. It was quite worrying to learn that in the last 20 years, with the constant availability of pornographic material online, sex addiction has become more common, even in under 18s. I had not realised this addiction was so common; around 1 in 100 people may be affected. After another Q&A session, and some rather deep conversations, we felt we needed something a bit more lighthearted to end the evening. Where better to go, then, than the Penis Drawing Tournament 2015? It was exactly that... hundreds of penis drawings stuck to the basement wall! We contributed some rather amusing doodles to the phallic gallery, both of which received a hearty chuckle from the people around us. We felt we had succeeded and were strangely proud of our drawings - if only my A-level Art & Design teachers could see me now... On a nearby wall were Valentine's confessions, where the public answered questions like "Best date?" and "Worst gift?". By far the worst gift was "A tomato" - I wish I could find the person who wrote that and give them a huge hug! Before we knew it, closing time had rolled around and we had missed out on some other amazing talks, two of which I would have really loved to have attended: It’s a Jungle Out There, where Patricia Brekke from ZSL’s Institute of Zoology talked about competitive sperm and sexual selection in the animal kingdom, and They’re Grrrrrreat, Mate, where Teague Stubbington, ZSL London Zoo keeper and big cat expert, talked about animal mating habits and difficulties of matchmaking animals for conservation breeding programmes. There were many more activities we did not get the chance to explore, including a silent disco (which by the end of the night was anything but silent! It was a spectacular evening, thank you to everyone involved in organising and presenting the night. I enjoyed it thoroughly and will definitely be attending again. Lates at the Science Museum, London runs on the last Wednesday of every month.
Information can be found at: www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/lates Next Lates event is 25th March: Enhancements - Synthetic biology
0 Comments
|
Categories
All
DisclaimerViews are my own and not those of my employer |