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Scientists get closer to replicating human sperm
Scientists have taken an important step forward in recreating the way the human body makes sperm, which could one day mean creating artificial sperm and eggs for infertility treatment. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge's Gurdon Institute, are thought to be the first team to have reached the "halfway point" -- a significant milestone -- on the path between stem cells and immature sperm.
Researchers use sperm to deliver cancer drugs to tumors
Chemotherapy has a lot of terrible side effects and that's partly because the drugs being used to fight cancer also attack healthy cells. Figuring out a way to deliver drugs to tumors without affecting healthy tissue is a challenge and a problem that researchers are trying to solve. One group working on this problem, New Scientist reports, is a team at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden and in a recent study, they showed that sperm could be turned into an effective drug delivery tool.
Men's health tech creates shame-free ways to get treatment
About 50 percent of men have erectile dysfunction. That's not to say that half of all men around you at any given time have ED. The statistic is aggregated across age groups, with the condition being more prevalent in older men -- 30 percent of men in their thirties, 40 percent in their forties and so on. But despite all the men it affects (not to mention their partners), ED isn't something people talk about much. It remains a taboo subject -- so much so that men even have trouble broaching it with doctors.
Sperm microscope may help nanobots navigate human bodies
Scientists have developed a microscope that allows them to track sperm movements in 3D, which could benefit the understanding of both fertility treatment and micro-robotics. The device is made up of inexpensive components including LEDs and an image sensor -- like the one found in a mobile phone -- and uses holography and image reconstruction algorithms to precisely track the motion of sperm heads and tails.
Semen, centrifuges and a personal journey in male fertility
In August 2012, I came into a neon-pink shot glass. Nine months later, a baby was born. I'd never planned on having a child of my own -- and to be clear, I still don't -- but when two of my best friends started looking for a donor, I jumped on the opportunity. For those of us who can't have children with our partners through good old-fashioned sex, the path to pregnancy is complicated and expensive. After careful consideration, my friends decided on what's commonly referred to as the Turkey Baster Method. I would masturbate into a sterile collection cup and pass the resulting semen to my friend who would draw it into a syringe and deliver it to his wife. She would then plunge it into her vagina.
Trak's at-home sperm tracker is a surprisingly good idea
Sitting in a fertility clinic is a nerve-racking experience, and it can get even more awkward for men when they're put on the spot to produce semen samples. Fortunately for them, a new device that started shipping earlier this month can help make part of that process easier and more comfortable. It's a $200 system called Trak that not only lets you measure your sperm count in the privacy of your own home, but also teaches you how to improve your reproductive health.
Birth control for men comes down to flipping a switch
Birth control for men still tends to be divided between condoms (which aren't always fun or reliable) and more drastic surgical procedures like vasectomies (which are frequently permanent). Not exactly ideal, is it? However, inventor Clemens Bimek thinks he can make it just a matter of flipping a switch. His Bimek SLV project uses tiny, switchable valve implants to prevent sperm from entering the semen stream. If everything goes well, you'd have surefire contraception without dulling sensations or ruling out children altogether -- you'd just have to switch it off the moment you're ready to try for kids.
This 50-million-year-old worm sperm is a scientific treasure
Scientists in Antarctica have come across one of the rarest specimens on record: ancient, fossilized worm sperm. "Because sperm cells are so short-lived and fragile, they are vanishingly rare in the fossil record," explains Benjamin Bomfleur, one of the palaeontologists who discovered the preserved cells. In fact, the find itself was an accident: Bomfleur's college, Thomas Mörs, came across the ancient sperm while examining a fossilized worm cocoon.
Shocker! Laptops placed on laps will overheat you where you don't want to be overheated
Scrotal hyperthermia -- even its name sounds like a terrible, horrible thing. Yes, gadget enthusiasts, we're talking about the vastly underrated problem that is the overheating of a techie gentleman's reproductive parts. A study recently published in the Fertility and Sterility journal confirms what we've long known -- that heat escaping laptops sat on laps can and will raise the temperature in your external offspring storage units -- but adds a bit of handy additional info as well. Firstly, it turns out that keeping one's legs together to balance the laptop is mostly to blame, as it doesn't provide enough airflow to let heat escape, while lap pads have been found to be entirely ineffective in protecting testicles from rising in temperature. Another note of import is that the men in this study failed to notice when their scrotal thermometers rose above what's considered safe, so we'd just advise doing your mobile blogging Engadget style: from a bar, a coffee table, the trunk of a car, or even a humble desk.
Sperm gene same as it was 600 million years ago, miraculously still in fashion
We've had a thing for sperm ever since Look Who's Talking broadened our appreciation for the reproductive arts, and now scientists at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine have discovered a wealth of new information about the world's most adored swimmers. Believe it or not, we're now left thinking that they're even more hardcore. Yes, they've been rocking the exact same makeup -- called the Boule gene -- since the dawn of evolution. But as it turns out, that gene is also shared across a huge swath of organisms from humans to fish to fruit flies, and it's only ever used in sperm. This bodes interestingly for the future of reproductive sciences; researchers removed the Boule gene from mice and found that, while otherwise completely normal, they didn't produce sperm. We can almost feel that Gucci case for the male contraceptive pill in our man-purses now. [Photo courtesy of aSIMULAtor]
Inconceivable! iSperm for the iPhone / iPod touch
Every once in a while, an iPhone app shows up that we just have to review because of the name. Mobigem's iSperm (click opens iTunes) is one of those apps.iSperm is an arcade game in which you, as a single sperm cell, battle other sperm and obstacles to reach your goal -- fertilizing an egg and creating a new life. There are three phases in the journey up the Fallopian tube: In this phase, you shake your iPhone to make your cell move faster than the other sperm; Here, you tilt the iPhone to avoid obstacles that are blocking your way to the egg; Finally, you tap on the iPhone's screen to speed up and make it to the egg before the others. The game has a 12+ rating for Mild Suggestive Theme and Sexual Content, and the developers went out of their way to make the game cute and fun rather than raunchy. After all, who could be upset about a sperm cell wearing a bow tie and carrying a rose for his date? If you get good at iSperm, you can get bragging rights by having a score in the worldwide Top 10.You can pick up iSperm for just US$0.99. It's a hoot!
Isabodywear underwear fends off cellphone radiation
If you thought donning tin foil caps was excessive, Isabodywear is out to make those contraptions looks mighty mild. While the debate about just how dangerous (or not) cellphone radiation is still rages on, there's certainly a paranoid sect that will snap up anything that claims to "protect them," and this Swiss garb maker is latching onto said opportunity. The briefs are purportedly constructed with threads made of silver, which the company claims will fend off harmful cellphone radiation; moreover, in an effort to really prove just how effective these undergarments are, it suggests that phone calls originated within the confines of your new underwear simply won't connect. Reportedly, 4,000 pairs have been created so far, and for folks willing to give these a try and fill out a survey, the first 500 of you to email in and request one will seemingly have one sent out gratis. There's no word on when you can expect the Slipways to hit the market, but they should sell for CHF29.90 ($24) apiece when retailers start stocking.[Via Textually]
Mobile phone use leading to lowered sperm count?
Ok, so we're fully aware of how potentially dangerous cellphones are to the longevity of our brain, and we understand the risk of generating ear tumors if we yap too long, but a new study by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine might have findings that elicit more than just a passing scoff. Researchers analyzing British males have linked "electromagnetic radiation emitted by handsets and / or the heat they generate" to actually lowering sperm count by "up to 25 percent." The study was based around four areas of potency -- "count, motility, viability / morphology, or appearance" -- and it was suggested that users of mobile phones produced "significant differences" from those who refrained from talking on the oh-so-treacherous handset. Even light talkers weren't off the hook, as the study found that occasional communicators seem to suffer from drops in sperm quality, while the big talkers who blew through four hours per day or more on their trusty cellphone had "results" described as "worst" and "poorest." Nevertheless, some doctors are indeed skeptical of unseen variables that must be considered when viewing the talkative crowd, such as the "amount of time they spend in cars, the amount of stress in their life, and the quality of food" they ingest -- so maybe you can just nix McDonald's, still maximize those M2M minutes, and not completely eliminate your hopes of fathering a child someday.
