Post by John Green on Jun 10, 2022 16:18:36 GMT
I remember not watching this series in 1976-77. Wiki says:
"The XYY Man began as a series of novels by Kenneth Royce, featuring the character of William (or Willie) 'Spider' Scott, a one-time cat-burglar who leaves prison aiming to go straight but finds his talents still to be very much in demand by both the criminal underworld and the British secret service. Scott has an extra Y chromosome that supposedly gives him a criminal predisposition – although he tries to go straight, he is genetically incapable of doing so.
....Although the television adaptation openly depicts a person with XYY syndrome as having criminal tendencies, it was highlighted following the series' broadcast that in real life, there is no connection. An early academic paper studying the conditional probability fallacy resulted in the myth becoming conventional wisdom in the 1970s, but subsequent research has not found any evidence for it. The subject was also touched on in an episode of Doomwatch, "By the Pricking of My Thumbs...", written by Robin Chapman." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_XYY_Man
I really didn't like the idea that someone could be born sinful, because of his race, sex, or whatever. (Googling 'Toxic masculinity Guardian' brings 1,400,000 (precisely) results in 0.44 seconds; rather fewer than I expected).
Today's Guardian has rather different XYY news:
"While most men have one X and one Y chromosome, some are born XXY or XYY, putting them at increased risk of health issues ranging from type 2 diabetes, blocked blood vessels and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a lung condition, the study found.
“We were surprised at how common this is,” said Prof Ken Ong, a paediatric endocrinologist at the MRC epidemiology unit at Cambridge and a senior author on the study. “It had been thought to be pretty rare.” Cripes.
"The XYY Man began as a series of novels by Kenneth Royce, featuring the character of William (or Willie) 'Spider' Scott, a one-time cat-burglar who leaves prison aiming to go straight but finds his talents still to be very much in demand by both the criminal underworld and the British secret service. Scott has an extra Y chromosome that supposedly gives him a criminal predisposition – although he tries to go straight, he is genetically incapable of doing so.
....Although the television adaptation openly depicts a person with XYY syndrome as having criminal tendencies, it was highlighted following the series' broadcast that in real life, there is no connection. An early academic paper studying the conditional probability fallacy resulted in the myth becoming conventional wisdom in the 1970s, but subsequent research has not found any evidence for it. The subject was also touched on in an episode of Doomwatch, "By the Pricking of My Thumbs...", written by Robin Chapman." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_XYY_Man
I really didn't like the idea that someone could be born sinful, because of his race, sex, or whatever. (Googling 'Toxic masculinity Guardian' brings 1,400,000 (precisely) results in 0.44 seconds; rather fewer than I expected).
Today's Guardian has rather different XYY news:
"While most men have one X and one Y chromosome, some are born XXY or XYY, putting them at increased risk of health issues ranging from type 2 diabetes, blocked blood vessels and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a lung condition, the study found.
“We were surprised at how common this is,” said Prof Ken Ong, a paediatric endocrinologist at the MRC epidemiology unit at Cambridge and a senior author on the study. “It had been thought to be pretty rare.” Cripes.
