Scientists claim to have created human sperm in laboratory

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8138963.stm

by nreece • 17 years ago

26 23 17 years ago

news.bbc.co.uk

dantheman2• 17 years ago

That is truly amazing, it's great that almost weekly I see something created that seemed like it might be decades away.

There are a lot of political/legal consequences of research like this, paternity tests can be used to rob unwitting men if someone decides to create a child without their knowledge. Also, this may eventually change the burden of proof in various forms of assault as the presence of sperm doesn't actually indicate that the individual involved was there.

On the flip side the upside is amazing, allowing sterile fathers to have children. And of course the technology is involved is amazing.

klipt2• 17 years ago

It might also allow lesbian couples to conceive using only their own DNA, if this technology isn't limited to male genes.

lucumo• 17 years ago

You'd still need the Y-chromosome. While not as big as the others, it does contain some genetic material.

tybris• 17 years ago

Yup, when the economy is down all the smart people rush back to science ;-).

cousin_it• 17 years ago

paternity tests can be used to rob unwitting men if someone decides to create a child without their knowledge

This would be a problem with the law, not a problem with the science.

dantheman2• 17 years ago

Just pointing out that as science advances old techniques need to be updated. In no way was I implying that there was any problem with science.

jeremyawon• 17 years ago

an upside i haven't seen mentioned is birth control - if the technology were perfected, men could sterilize themselves without giving up the possibility of having children.

onreact-com• 17 years ago

So now we can make humans in factories like in Matrix?

ars• 17 years ago

You'd still need a uterus.

Plus they didn't do that in the Matrix (as far I can remember from the show it was regular births).

ErrantX• 17 years ago

In the film it specifically says "grown" and mentions fields.

bd2• 17 years ago

Are adult stem cells equivalent to embryonal ones?

From how I understood it, they just separated germline cells from very early embryos and let them develop into sperm in an incubator (that is, these germline stem cells would anyway develop into sperm, if left in the embryo).

While this is certainly interesting, for "curing" infertility, wouldn't you still need to find a way how to turn adult stem cells into germline stem cells?

This seems like equivalent problem to "growing hearts in a vat".

eru2• 17 years ago

However soup of sperms has less structure than a heart. So it might be easier to grow.

klipt2• 17 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_pluripotent_stem_cell

bd2• 17 years ago

Amazing. This is actually much more interesting than the original post.

tricky• 17 years ago

Wow... Biology: the ultimate hack... Anyone think that the singularity will be more about biology than computers?

fburnaby• 17 years ago

Biology was the first singularity. Something sophisticated enough to reproduce itself, and then improve itself.

rms• 17 years ago

There are all sorts of different singularities, in my opinion. Cold fusion would be a singularity. Biological immortality/gene modification in the living is another. Self-improving AI is the singularity that encompasses all of the possible singularities.

Scientists claim to have created human sperm in laboratory

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