Bob Beale | Jul 22, 2001 | 5 min read
The cry of "It's a boy" or "It's a girl" marks the newborn child's first and most basic label of personal identity. But researchers' understanding of sex is undergoing profound and surprising changes due to new insights gained from sociology, biology, and medicine. The differences between females and males, once believed black and white--or pink and blue--now appear like a blurred rainbow of confusion. Researchers are learning, for example, that the Y chromosome has degenerated over the centurie