Genetics: Choosing the Sex of Rabbits

In the Middle Ages, women who wanted a boy baby were advised to avoid copulation during the dark of the moon and (while an abbot prayed) to drink wine, mixed by an alchemist, with lion's blood. As often as not, they gave birth to girls. And despite scientists' growing understanding of genetics, modern parents are unable to do any better in choosing the sex of their offspring. But help may be on the way. Two English scientists have devised a technique for controlling the sex of rabbits. Their method, the first to achieve 100% accuracy with any mammal, may...

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