sperm
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Watching These Sperm Cooperate Is Oddly Fascinating
Get your Sunday started right by watching how sperm sometimes form power-swimming blocks to get ahead. And learn why these particular sperm get together.
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Chemically Freezing Sperm Tails Could Be The Key To A Reversible Male Contraceptive
As sperm swim they transform chemical energy into motion, the way a car’s engine uses gas to propel you down the road. Like that engine, the process is complicated — if just one part stops working, the whole system can grind to a halt. This idea might lead to a contraceptive for men that’s reversible.
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Here’s How Men Make 200 Million Sperm Every Day
Human testes are masters of mass production, spitting out sperm at a rate of 200 million per day. But that doesn’t mean the process is fast — it takes 64 days to make a sperm. The organ keeps the count high with an assembly-line anatomy that scales up sperm development from a trickle to a…
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The First Person Who Ever Saw Sperm Cells Collected Them From His Wife
It’s a bright day in 1677, in the city of Delft, and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek is making love to his wife. But moments after he shudders with orgasm, he hurries out of bed to grab his microscope. After all, he’s not just spending time with his wife: he’s running an important scientific experiment at the…