Mouse Sperm Cells Grown In Vitro 121
smitty777 writes "In what is being hailed as a breakthrough in male infertility, researchers from Muenster and Ben Gurion Universities were able to actually grow mouse sperm cells in a petri dish. Researchers feel this is just a short step away from human in vitro sperm cell production. The details of how this will be accomplished are still being worked out. FTA: '[According to Professor Richard Sharpe], "What this research shows is that it will be possible to make human sperm outside the body. The germ cells just need the right environment. That's the tricky part getting them to think they are in the testes." Professor Sharpe believes that one novel way may make.it possible. He proposes using a live mouse as a "host" to make human sperm. He said: "What you would do is take some human testicular tissue with germ cells and place that under the skin of the mouse and use it to incubate the cells. You could then extract any sperm and use it in fertility treatment. But we would have to demonstrate that there were no mouse cells present in the extracted sperm if we were to use this technique and I believe that's possible."'"
This will finally make men obsolete. (Score:2, Funny)
All men will become obsolete, and militant feminists will rule the world!
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With women having all the essentials to reproduce and rear offspring and men having but one that may very well be the ultimate destiny of the human race.
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Of course, tradition will prevent this from happening for many years to come. I can only imagine the conversations a lot of Chinese families will be having a decade or two from now:
"Sorry, son. We chose to give you a significantly shorter lifespan, an inferior immune system, poorer social skills, and the inability to have one of life's most powerful experiences. Also, since tons of other families did the same thing, there's a big gender gap today and you'll be lucky to find someone to fall in love with.
We are men! Hear us roar! (Score:1)
Women are great. I have no problem with women. But for goodness sake, I've had enough of this ridiculous female chauvinism that dominates our society today.
Men are awesome. Even in this world where all the rules have been skewed in favor of women (women get better grades and graduate high school, attend college, and get degrees at higher rates than men) men are still disproportionately represented at the highest levels in most challenging creative endeavors. Look around you. See all that stuff (electronics
Re:This will finally make men obsolete. (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, bullshit. The shoe shortage alone would cause wars that would make WWII look like a minor spat, and Mom-JeansGate would make Nixon look like a saint.
On a more serious note, the only way such a society could survive for long would be as long as civilization held up. As history shows, that's not always a given.
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Not just that, ever worked in an office that's pretty much a hen-fest? Noticed how they start to synchronize their periods somehow?
Just think about it. An entire planet on PMS at once. It'd make WW2 look like NOTHING.
Re:This will finally make men obsolete. (Score:4, Funny)
Except when it comes time to open jars.
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Shhh! don't give away man-secrets
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I find a spoon works better usually.
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You read the part where they still need germ cells from the testes, right?
Or do you not know what testes are? Did someone never have The Talk with you?
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The genes for it are there... so if they can grow what they need for this process...
Yikes. Scary thought.
Re:This will finally make men obsolete. (Score:5, Funny)
and militant feminists will rule the world!
At that point I request death by Snu Snu.
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You won't get it. Unless you somehow live in the Men's Concentration Camps until the time of the great battery famine.
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Not much. What's snu-snu with you?
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Since women have wombs naturally the path of least resistance leads to a female dominated society, and since women love baubles the economy will naturally improve. As for door opening, I take it you've never been to a lesbian bar. Men are superflous.
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So, err, that whole 'growing sperm cells in a lab' thing comes naturally too, then?
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A leads to B leads to C. Women's motivation to get rid of men is a lot higher than men's motivation to get rid of women.
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that's because women don't instinctively realize just how harsh life can be.
Re:This will finally make men obsolete. (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm pretty sure most women (when taken over the entire period of history) have been well arware of how harsh life could be, you know being sold as chattels to older men, dying in childbirth, carrying water from wells, watching their children die from disease, infection or starvation, washing clothes with rocks in stream, milling wheat to flour by hand from grain, etc...
Women may not have been sent out to fight in wars as a general rule, but for those living in warzones thay experienced it every bit as much as men did.
Things got cushy for women in the first world about the same time they got cushy for men.
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I didn't mean to imply life was a wonderful paradise for them or that they didn't sacrifice, just that men have done a large part of the interface work with reality required to maintain a civilization...most of (but not all) the big picture stuff. yes women bore and raised the offspring (which is critical obviously), prepared food, and handled part of the home maintenance, but right along side that were the men defending their existence, building the homes, hunting/working for the food that was prepared, s
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I'm the idiot when you are the one responding with ad hominem?
Re:This will finally make men obsolete. (Score:4, Insightful)
Pot, meet kettle.
It's sad to see us men having been brainwashed into taking it as a given that men would be "inferior",
EXACTLY the same way women were made to think that before.
Also, true feminists hate nothing more than female ideals.
They want to suppress every girl that likes to play with puppets, and force every woman into a job she doesn't like, just to prove the point that we wouldn't need men. Regardless of everyone suffering from it.
That's a bad stated of deep mental illness.
I can understand their view, as those feminazis were themselves victims of men.
But of course it's bad for everyone, including themselves. And it's entirely delusional anyway, same as those 50s-style sexists.
Real women love men, real men love women, and real humans aren't such dicks anyway.
Nobody want to wipe out men. Or would you have any interest in wiping out women, if you would get robotic sex slaves to bang all day?
NO, of course not. A robot can't give you love. A in-vitro sperm cell can't give you love. And for nearly all women, another woman also can't give them love.
Man, all you idiots should get out into the real world more often!
P.S.: Even lesbians can't stand feminazis, just as we today can't stand the sexists from the 50s. Mainly because they make the entire gender / group look bad.
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Real women love men, real men love women, and real humans aren't such dicks anyway.
So lesbians aren't real women, and gays aren't real men?
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... because the act of loving someone requires them to match your sexually preferred gender?
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yeah except when it's time to do the dirty work/heavy lifting.. then it's ''omg I need a man'. of course, when it's NOT time to do the dirty work, we're all 'equals'.
Re:This will finally make men obsolete. (Score:4, Interesting)
the statement is based on behavioral trends. when the going gets tough, most women will defer to, instinctively, and/or manipulate an available man into doing the task. viewing examples of this ubiquity is easy. if you want the cultural reflection of current norms and trends, turn on the tv, and if you want realtime sampling, go to a public place where people interact and pay attention. there is a nasty double standard brewing in the culture that is detrimental to men and boys and it is quite obvious, even in irrelevancies like television commercials. it is a biological fact that women are not as strong as men physically, while mentally, the genders differ in temperament and focus. men tend to be world focused, while women tend to be people focused. these are biases, not absolutes, but they should be encouraged, not censured for the sake of some politically charged ideology.
anyway, based on what I've seen and read, women have shown better small motor dexterity than most men, though there are exceptions. in terms of overall capabilities, the male performance curve slopes much more than the female.. ie the majority of geniuses are men as are the majority of retarded people. fewer women suffer neurological and physical disability than men. it looks like men are nature's 'gamble.' they serve the species by being the differentiators who advertise latent talent, while the women choose which qualities they like when they make their sexual selections. except in the most cerebral of people, most of this is done nonverbally and subconciously by both genders regardless of what political think-tank 'theories' state.
also my comment didn't just imply physical labor.. by 'dirty work' I meant any time a serious effort was needed that does not (usually) get the spotlight when it comes time for the reward.
Re:This will finally make men obsolete. (Score:4, Funny)
I thought men were kept around to kill spiders.
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My husband is far more arachnaphobic than I am. I'm usually the one who has to remove spiders from our house.
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http://www.amazon.com/Regiment-Women-Novel-Thomas-Berger/dp/0316092428
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If all your woman wants from you is your sperm, you're doing it right.
- fixed that for you
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Everything else she can get from other means...well I guess everything now.
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you laugh but the current political climate might actually go for it at some point. here in the USA the federal government is little more than a conglomerate of powerful economic and social lobbies, among them womens' groups and business owners who want docile, obedient self regulated conformists as employees, men and women both.
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AC's Sperm Cells Grow in Your Mother's Vag (Score:1)
news at 11
Cue jockeying for sports animal in... (Score:5, Funny)
I can see them charging more based on what animal is used. "What? They're growing sperm in mice? We will grow your sperm in Lion testicles for the low price of $50,000."
Do not want (Score:4, Insightful)
Overpopulation is currently a bigger concern.
The last thing we need is more fertile males running around.
Give us abundant cheap energy and food replication!
Oh, and practical interstellar travel.
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The last thing we need is more fertile males running around.
The kind of people who would be able to afford this type of treatment (or any fertility treatment) tend to not have very many children anyways.
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Oh, and practical interstellar travel.
Get that last part down, and you solve all the rest as listed, because you'll have more living space and potential resources than you'll know what to do with.
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Give us abundant cheap energy and food replication!
I don't particularly fancy it, but that second part could be addressed with the current subject...
Flying cars! (Score:2)
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Overpopulation is currently a bigger concern.
Which is why the lion idea has legs. Just dress the prospective father in a gazelle suit, and point him in the direction of dave the lion. I imagine it would prove to be an extremely effective contraceptive.
Are you.. (Score:5, Funny)
A man or a mouse?
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Both I guess...
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Either a muppet of a man or a very manly muppet
There are enough people. (Score:3, Insightful)
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Realistically doesn't this just make it more likely for people with defective genes to reproduce?
People of Wal-Mart [peopleofwalmart.com] needs a steady supply of customers.
Re:There are enough people. (Score:5, Insightful)
Realistically doesn't this just make it more likely for people with defective genes to reproduce?
Doesn't most medical and technological advancement?
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Since you can create the sperm, no. It's more of a chance that a healthy smart well formed person is born.
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More research into expanding the food supply might be a better use of resources.
More food = more people
What we need is better education and family planning services in poorer countries.
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a young healthy child, well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food
--Dr. J. Swift
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We produce plenty of food globally. The problem is distribution.
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It's seven billion now.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/31/uk-population-baby-india-idUSLNE79U04N20111031 [reuters.com]
Stuart Little (Score:4, Funny)
Or perhaps why Mrs Little was so keen to adopt him.
I don't give a rats' ass (Score:1)
btw, your balls are going to feel the same pain when kicked.
Dominant Females (Score:5, Funny)
So now they propose using mice as some sort of external testicles. (furry flesh bags used for containing and growing sperm). Small and portable enough to carry in a pocket, purse or such?
People used to tell me that my wife carried my balls in her handbag - this brings it closer to relaity.
Re:Dominant Females (Score:5, Funny)
Either way, she screams and jumps up on a chair when she sees them.
old school (Score:1)
Why bother? (Score:3)
I'm pretty sure you can get plenty of sperm for free from millions of sources. Many of them will pay you to take it.
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Well damn (Score:3)
women don't have to put up with us anymore.
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get some self respect.. you've got a serious case of stockholm syndrome.
COOL! (Score:2)
I don't know what to make of this, (Score:1)
It sounds like Mickey Mouse science or maybe just mad science. Copyism?
And I wonder how far they will grow these new cells and if they will try to produce embryos from them.
It would definitely bring a new meaning to the question "are you man or mouse?"
"there were no mouse cells present" (Score:1)
Murine viruses (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Murine viruses (Score:1)
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Women are scared of mice... (Score:2)
A really important question (Score:2)
So could they manufacture sperm from women? Imagine the possibilities!
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I'm wondering the same thing, can a female stem cell be convinced it is teste germ cell, then using this process make a creature that has two moms?
morgauxo (Score:3)
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If your body fails to produce sperm and does not have the ability to transmit it properly to a female host then MAYBE you shouldn't be having children?
Right. Because one specific defect automatically means you have no useful genetic characteristics.
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For a definition of "well" that does not include tools or complex societies.
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