A to Z Blogging Challenge 2013 - X

For this year’s A-Z Challenge, I have chosen to highlight authors and their books, that we, in our book club, have read, as a group, separately  or have been recommended by someone in our facebook, Book Club, ‘What to Read Next?’

OMG, I'm grabbing at straws, here!!!! The only book who's author's last name  begins with  the letter 'X', is a Chinese author who writes all kind of Chinese books, which fine, if you're Chinese.

So in desperation I  have looked to other sources. Being a retired nurse, and a mother, the existence of X chromosome was near and dear to me, having given birth to four daughters. So, with a slight departure from the theme, I've not highlighted  a novel or book, but a medical fact and an author.

So, X is for  the 'X' chromosome, discovered by Mary F. Lyons.


The Author - Mary F. Lyon 
Mary Lyon was born in Norwich, England in 1925, and received her higher education at Cambridge University (B.A. 1946; Ph.D. 1950; ScD 1968). She then joined a group in Edinburgh set up to study the genetic hazards of radiation, using mutagenesis experiments in mice. In 1955 she moved with this group to the MRC Radiobiology Unit, Harwell, where she headed the Genetics Section from 1962-86. It was while working on radiation hazards in 1961 that she discovered X-chromosome inactivation, for which she is best known. She has also done extensive work on the mouse t-complex, and made many other contributions to mammalian genetics. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among her awards is the Wolf Prize for Medicine in 1997. 

The sex chromosomes differ from all others in that they are the only ones that vary in number between different individuals within a species. The severe developmental defects that accompany rare extra copies of autosomes raised the question of how XX females and XY males can accommodate different numbers of X-chromosomes.  In mammals the almost complete inactivation of one X-chromosome in each cell of a female provided an answer. The discovery of X-chromosome inactivation arose from a synthesis of three or four separate observations in different areas of genetics. Although discovered in the mouse, it proved to be a general mechanism among mammals. 

 I'm happy for her discovery because I have given birth to four beautiful daughters (xx chromosones), who have, collectively given birth to seven awesome grandchildren, so far, :-). Five with xy and two with xx chromosomes.

If you'd like to check out or join our facebook, book club, please, select the link, What to Read Next?