ISSUE 11 GONVILLE & CAIUS COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE 2010 The Story of Testosterone Still Flying The Flag at the South Pole A Caian with The Red Arrows From the Director of Development ...Always a Caian 1 Text. Dr Anne Lyon (2001) Fellow Contents Scott Polar Research Institute,Scott Polar Research University of Cambridge Dan White 2 6 10 Crown Copyright Crown Liang Yao Dan White 14 16 20 2 The Story of Testosterone – Joe Herbert (1976) 6 Still Flying The Flag – Adrian McCallum (2007) 10 John Caius and his Statutes – Michael Prichard (1950) 14 Dr Caius’ Grave – Michael Wood (1959) interviewed by James Howell (2009) 16 A Caian with the Red Arrows – Andrew Bryant (1998) interviewed by James Howell (2009) 18 From the Archives – James Cox, College Archivist 22 The Caius Fund – Soraya Nassar, Annual Fund Officer 24 Thanks to our Benefactors... 29 The Stephen Hawking Circle 30 Five New Lectureships! 32 Festal Evensong at Norwich Cathedral – James Howell (2009) 33 CaiWorld “A gift to Gonville & Caius College counts towards the 34 Two New Shells for the Boat Club – Soraya Nassar, Annual Fund Officer Copies of Waterhouse and his Gate by Michael Cambridge 800th Anniversary Campaign” 35 CaiMemories Prichard (1950) are available from www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1281812 Cover Photos by Yao Liang 2 Once a Caian... ...Always a Caian 3 mating competition, but The thrills and spills of motor racing and is wholly unattractive financial trading to the females. If Jensen Button or Lewis Hamilton drives round Silverstone with due care and Testosterone attention, they will almost certainly finish maketh man the race. They will never win it. Each corner is Men are as a risk, an assessment of whether the dependent on probability of staying on track is acceptably testosterone as greater than spinning off. No driver, however any stag. Tribes good, can ever be sure. But the best drivers compete with not only enjoy the challenge, they make the others for the best best risk assessments. All Formula 1 drivers hunting grounds, the are young males. Interestingly, the men that clearest water: it is the run Formula 1 are not young, just as the young men who do the fighting. generals of an army or the elders of the tribe They defend their territory, or attempt are not, but it is the young men who are sent to capture the resources of others. They may out to race (or fight and die). Formula 1 does even go to war. They compete for the most not make the biological world a better place. desirable mates: both by overcoming other Wheat yields are not improved, water is not Hypothalamus young men, and by appearing most attractive made more plentiful. It’s a wholly man-made to young women. For this, they need to be competition to prove superiority, and one both sexually motivated but also that requires considerable risk. Neither is the competitive. Next time a car goes past you world improved by a Chelsea win, but the rather too fast, with a loud exhaust note and primeval forces that drive competition Amygdala the stereo blaring, you can safely bet that it’s between rival tribes survives in this modern being driven by a young male: part of sexual format, and every pass is a risk taken by a display. Darwin taught us that individual testosterone-driven young man with plenty differences in physical and behavioural to lose. features underpin competitiveness, Competitive sport requires strong, fit attractiveness and fertility, and these individuals, so young males are well suited to determine survival, not only of the it. This is not so obvious for other individual but also his progeny. occupations, yet in some, young men also Malthus emphasised the vital predominate. If you go onto a financial importance of adequate trading floor, you will be impressed by the resources. So it is essential for fact that nearly all financial traders are male, young males to take risks. and most of them are under 40. They are Testosterone not only equips required to make rapid, frequent decisions them for so doing, it also makes about whether or not to engage in a trade risk-taking attractive. It is a (eg buy or sell a stock or a commodity etc), biological fact that young men, based on a mass of current information. Like by Joe Herbert (1976) like the young males of other some other occupations, the consequences species, are expendable. Only a few of a mistake can be disastrous both for the are required to fertilise very many individual and his organisation. Rather similar females. Many will fail, many will die. But to deciding whether to fight a competitor or without taking any risks, success is not run away. Just like armies, those that control he next time you visit a competitive, aggressive and prepared to possible. A consistent feature of human the banks are not young, though they are historic house and see a pair of take risks: of injury, failure, even death. history is the slaughter of young men. mostly male. Their testosterone may have antlers mounted high on a All this is entirely due to the powerful Men bring into the modern world the declined somewhat with age, though this is wall, you will be witnessing action of a rather simple chemical: physiological and behavioural features highly variable. They decide the overall the considerable costs and testosterone. Testosterone is a steroid, a developed for success in a more primitive strategy, as well as monitoring the Trisks of reproduction, as well as the vanity of group of hormones that includes oestrogen, one. But there is one important difference. performance of the youngsters. But they, like the hunter. Each autumn stags not only grow that quintessential ‘female’ hormone Whereas the natural world owes nothing to the generals, recognise that rapid decisions these amazing weapons, they also put on a responsible for the dramatic change in body the ingenuity of the human brain – indeed, involving high risk and taken under extreme mound of muscle, stop eating, and rush shape of girls at puberty, and cortisol, the the human brain reflects successful pressure are best made by young men, who about bellowing like a brass band of hormone that responds to stress, and adaptation to that world – the modern world are biologically equipped to do just that. trombones. Other stags will be charged, without which we die. Testosterone supplies is largely its creation. So the human brain – antlers interlocked, hides ripped, wounds most of what the male’s physique and largely the male brain – sets the scene in Testosterone, making money or reddening, victory or defeat declared. The motivation needs to stand any chance of which modern competition and success will picking fights object of this is access to as many fertile perpetuating his gene pool, and none of us unfold in business, finance and everyday life. For years, economists have sought a general hinds as possible, and hence reproductive would be here without it. Nearly all Testosterone goes on playing its essential theory that explains how and why people success – counted as the number of young testosterone comes from the testes, and the role in the construction of the competitive make financial decisions. You can see the sired. At this point, the buck (pun intended) annual variations in the amount they secrete arena and individual success within this man- temptation. Einstein provided a fundamental passes to the female, but that’s another is why stags in the summer graze peaceably made world. Man has also invented theory for physics, Darwin another for story. together, but engage in lethal fights a few surrogates that satisfy the inbuilt masculine biology: both have revolutionised their fields. Breeding is not just a matter of a male months later. It is also why a castrated stag liking for risk and competitive success. Why not one for economics? It hasn’t feeling sexy. He also has to be fertile, is not only a non-combatant in the annual 4 Once a Caian... ...Always a Caian 5 happened. I am not at all qualified to is alter these hormones, and see if they 1902 – Punch C E Brock genitals have receptors, so the penis becomes The high forehead of humans is the result experienced this hormone before. Early in provide an informed criticism of theories of really do change financial decision-making larger at puberty. The prostate gland has of the great development of the cortex at the pregnancy, the male baby’s testes start to economic decision-making, but one thing is by influencing emotional states. But we can receptors, and these can be blocked if the front of the brain – called, naturally, the produce it for a few weeks. This foetal clear. The assumption that financial do this in the lab, using the sort of games prostate gets too large or becomes cancerous. frontal lobes. This is where much of the social testosterone has a massive effect on the decisions are made entirely rationally (that referred to above. But the central event is the way that and emotional control and decision-making internal organs, the external genitals and is, an objective assessment of all the Male sexuality and aggression are strictly testosterone alters the brain. capacity is seated. We refer to people as the brain. The brain is ‘masculinised’: that is, information available and the possible controlled in all species. In humans there are Receptors for testosterone are not ‘highbrow’ or ‘lowbrow’. Damage it, and the made sensitive to testosterone that will be outcomes of any decision) is wrong. numerous legal and social (including scattered throughout the brain, but person may no longer be able to plan his/her secreted later at puberty.