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Published online 25 April 2003 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news030421-10

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Heat could flip sex switch

Testicles may be on the outside in the interests of equality.

Testicles might be outside the body because temperature influences the sex of human children.

A temperature-sensitive gender switch that makes hot sperm male could be a relic from our evolutionary past, argue John McLachlan and Helen Storey1, citing evidence that more males are born in hot climates.

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