Wednesday, June 6, 2007

It's In Your Hands

Went to the library yesterday to get my weekly dose of fresh air. Was browsing through New Scientist magazines n came across an interesting article. These are the summarized points:
1. The ratio of the length of your index finger (jari telunjuk) divided by the length of your ring finger (jari manis) is called 2D:4D ratio, and is indicative of the levels of sex hormones you're exposed to when you were in the womb.
2.The more testosterone (male sex hormone, for those not biologically inclined), the longer the ring finger. The more oestrogen (female sex hormone), the longer the index finger.
3.Women's 2D:4D tends to be close to 1, men's to 0.96. How much you differ from the average indicates how feminised or masculinised you are.
4. How to get your 2D:4D? Go to a photocopier, photocopy your right hand. After you got the print, measure the length of the index finger and divide it by the length of the ring finger.

So naturally, after reading that I went to the library photocopier and proceeded to get my 2D:4D ratio. The result? 0.95....which means I'm way masculinized...oh well what's new..hahahaha..These are the things about low-ratio people:
- More likely to have traditional "male" qualities like assertiveness and mathematical skills
- Low ratio men tend to have more sexual partners and more children.(..ok..thank goodness I'm not a man...)
- More lesbians are low-ratio women (whatever...)
- Likely to have higher than average anaerobic efficiency which means greater ability at endurance sports

High ratio people are:
- More likely to be neurotic (I'm just transferring what's written in New Scientist...)
- More gays are high-ratio men
- High ratio women have high fertility
- High ratio men are susceptible to heart disease while high ratio women tend towards breast and cervical cancer

Well well, the whole thing seems scientific enough for me, but do take it with a grain of salt. But it's this kind of quirky things that makes me think of science with fondness, and wonder where will I be now if I'm studying to be a researcher instead of an architect...

Ah...the good old days of triple science....


2 comments:

Hilman said...

I am so macho!!!!!!!!

joy the penguin said...

hahaha, my friend hilman there got a ratio below 0.90..hence the machoness ;p didnt even know that low a score is possible.
hey for the others, do u mind putting ur ratio here if u measured? so we can gauge if this "scientific stuff" actually holds water.