Cardinal Points

Issue date: 4/27/07 Section: Fuse

Media Credit: Holly Boname Nancy Elwess and Linda Luck, two professors from PSUC, are collaborating to write and publish "Female by Default".

When a male sings along to the song "Man! I Feel Like a Woman", the song made famous by Shania Twain, he isn't too far off base.

It has been scientifically proven that before a baby is even born, it is female by default.

This fact can be an explanation to why Nancy Elwess, an associate professor in biological sciences at Plattsburgh State, and Sandra Latourelle, an adjunct lecturer in biological sciences as well, named the book they are currently working on "Female by Default".

The book explains how the body has default settings and will describe in detail why we are all, as they say, female by default.

They will also explain the many differences between men and women, the history of how women have lived over the years, different diseases women are susceptible to and various other topics.

The book, they say, will not be a boring read.

"We'll try and come at it with a humorous approach," Latourelle said.

Elwess first started out wanting to go to veterinarian school, but instead she went to Purdue University to earn a degree in medical biology. She then went to the University of Vermont where she received her Ph.D and began research.

"I missed teaching while doing research," Elwess said.

Latourelle referred to herself as a "recycled professor," having retired twice now.

She first taught high school biology, then came to PSUC in 1995 - three years before Elwess arrived. They have worked together ever since.

This book is not going to be written by just these two women. Even though it did start out as just Elwess and Latourelle, they wanted to get more people involved.

In the end, they recruited eight others to help in writing the new book.

Ann Tracy, a part-time lecturer in the English department, Linda Luck, a chemistry professor, and Kathleen Lavoie, dean of arts and sciences, are three of the many people who will be helping Elwess and Latourelle.

"What sparked the idea was doing supplemental reading and also from doing lectures," Elwess said. "We just thought it would be fun to produce a product."

When it came to who Elwess and Latourelle wanted to pick out for the various topics that would be discussed in the book, they would try and think of who the best in the field is.

"We went through different topics and thought of who knew what information, and it took us a week and a half," Elwess said.

Lavoie said it did not take her long to accept their invitations to work on this project.

"I was ready to volunteer before they even asked," Lavoie said. "They're a great team."

Lavoie will be covering the topic of differences in gender and immunity.

This is fitting mainly because she does teach the immunologist course here at PSUC.

"I think collectively we're trying to show the genetic differences," Lavoie said. "I'm very happy to be a part of it."

Elwess and Latourelle hope to start working on the book after the end of the semester and will have a rough draft of the book by the end of the summer.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools