 | Nature's Choice: What Science Reveals About the Biological Origins of Sexual Orientation The true role of biology in determining sexual orientation is an oft-debated issue in both the popular media and scientific communities, and evaluating the literature on the topic can be daunting. Nature's Choice: What Science Reveals About the Biological Origins of Sexual Orientation offers both a comprehensive review of the scientific literature and a fresh perspective on this complex and politically charged subject. Respected researcher, speaker, and author Dr. Cheryl Weill offers readers of all backgrounds an enlightening analysis of findings from over twenty years of research on the factor of biology in the determination of sexual orientation. Nature's Choice: What Science Reveals About the Biological Origins of Sexual Orientation brilliantly distills complicated studies and research findings dealing with brain anatomy, genetics, sex-typical behavior in children, auditory, startle reflex, and many other areas. Spanning a wide range of important topics including human sexual development and the effects of hormones, Ellis and Ames' Gestational Neurohormonal Theory, the ins, outs, and implications of how scientific research is funded, and model of the role of testosterone in determining human sexuality, Nature's Choice: What Science Reveals About the Biological Origins of Sexual Orientation is an exciting book to educate and inspire readers from scientific and non-scientific backgrounds equally. Dr. Cheryl L. Weill received a B.S. degree from the College of Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley in 1969 and a Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1974. After additional training in molecular neuroscience at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratories, and Harvard Medical School she embarked on an independent research and teaching career in the Departments of Neurology and Anatomy and the Neuroscience Center at Louisiana State University Health Science Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation and concerned the survival of neurons during development, and the identification of the genes and the molecular signals used by neurons for their survival. In 1993, she presented a lecture on the biology of sexual orientation at the PFLAG National Convention and has presented updated material upon which Nature's Choice is based forty-six times to PFLAG chapters, medical school classes, continuing education classes, graduate school classes, churches, social worker and other organizations. She retired from academic science in 1999, obtaineed a Masters of Social Work degree from the University of Denver in 2001, is licensed as an LSW and is in private clinical practice in Denver, CO. |
