10 Spunky Facts About Sperm

Sperm and semen are as common as men in the world. However, aside from knowing that it comes from the male genitals and is important for making babies, there are still a lot of amazing things about it that many of us don’t know. For example, during World War I, British spies had the bright idea to use semen as invisible ink. After one agent decided to store his semen in a bottle, the letters he sent using the invisible ink stank so much that his handlers were forced to send him a letter telling him that a “fresh operation is necessary for each letter.” But even that pales in comparison to...

Cryopreservation

Scientists have developed a new method of freeze-drying sperm cells that trumps the old and cumbersome cryopreservation chamber. This new technology involves the use of a special preservation liquid that preserves sperm more easily and with greater energy efficiency. With the old method, the process required keeping sperm cells at a temperature of –196 degrees Celsius (–321 °F) using expensive machinery that was difficult to maintain. The new technology, however, allows the sperm to be stored at just 4 degrees Celsius (39 °F). The sperm can even survive storage at room temperature for several hours in the event of a power outage.

With the new technology for preserving sperm cells and egg cells, forward-thinking conservationists now have a cheaper means of implementing their dream of preserving genetic material from the world’s endangered species inside an “ark.” Better yet, it might mean we could someday use preserved genetic material to populate another world. Another tantalizing prospect is that we can now cheaply store our sperm at an optimal age for reproduction and use it whenever we decide to settle down and have kids, thus ensuring that our offspring will get the best genetic material from us without sacrificing our youth.

Sperm Smuggling

Palestinians, like most Arabs, are from a family-oriented culture that favors a sizable brood. This has caused problems for the wives of Palestinian men serving time in Israeli prisons, where they are not allowed conjugal visits. Since Palestinian culture strongly frowns on women divorcing their husbands or seeking comfort from other men while their husbands are gone, their options for pregnancy are limited.

Using Hollywood logic, the women found an ingenious solution: smuggling their husbands’ sperm out of jail, then using it to impregnate themselves through artificial insemination. Of course, smuggling semen out of a high-security Israeli prison is not easy. The very short shelf life of semen, not to mention its sensitivity to heat, makes it even harder. These women are apparently remarkably determined, however, because many of them have succeeded, thanks to a combination of tenacity, luck, and science. So far, more than a dozen have given birth to healthy children conceived via smuggled semen.

Semen Allergies

The chemicals that our bodies produce during and after sex are the reason why sex is so much fun, even if it is physically arduous. Unfortunately, for some, sex can be a nightmare. There are people out there who suffer from the wretched problem of being allergic to semen.

Semen allergies can manifest in various forms and with varying intensity. Some experience only mild itching while others may go into life-threatening anaphylactic shock. This illness is not limited to women—there are men who are allergic to the semen of others and even some who are allergic to their own. A variant of semen allergy found in men is called POIS, which is an acronym of “post-orgasmic illness syndrome.” As the name implies, it means that sufferers experience flu-like symptoms just after orgasm that may last anywhere from a few hours to several days.

It’s not much more fun for women, either. According to a recent study, as many as 12 percent of women suffer from some form of semen allergy, with symptoms ranging from mild headaches to severe rashes to anaphylactic shock. Doctors are quick to point out, however, that semen allergy does not in any way prevent someone from getting pregnant, since the allergy is to semen and not sperm.

The Fuhrer’s Bull Semen Aphrodisiac

Plenty has been said about Adolf Hitler, but we don’t know much about his sex life. Historians agree that Hitler probably had six female lovers, four of whom attempted or committed suicide. There must have been something about Hitler that drove women to love him to death. Was it the sex? Probably not.

From what has been gathered from Hitler’s medical files, it appears that he had problems when it came to keeping things up and going. Killing Jews and waging war against the Allies took its toll on poor old Adolf to the point that he needed a boost to keep his libido strong enough to satisfy young Eva Braun. Since Viagra was not yet available, his good doctor prescribed him a regular course of bull semen injections. The idea was that since bulls are virile creatures, injecting their semen would bestow some of those attributes upon the patient. Unfortunately, we do not have any record of whether the treatment was effective.

Artificial Sperm

For couples who badly want to have kids but just can’t, their dream of having a brood from their own loins might soon become a reality. Not long ago, anyone would think that giving the gift of procreation to a eunuch was nothing short of a biblical miracle, but such a thing is possible with the advent of stem cell technology. It could even allow women to impregnate other women.

Scientists from Kyoto University used stem cells from mouse skin and embryos to create primordial reproductive cells, including both sperm and egg cells. When injected into the testicles of an infertile mouse, the primordial reproductive cells produced healthy, normal-looking sperm cells that can be used to make healthy offspring through in vitro fertilization.

Not to be outdone, scientists from Israel’s Ben-Gurion University pioneered a different method of generating artificial sperm by creating an artificial testis in a Petri dish that can produce viable sperm cells with the help of some scientific wizardry. Their method of creating sperm cells involves the use of testicular germ cells that grow into mature sperm under in vitro culture. This method opens a vast avenue of possibilities. In the future, anyone can just have their testicular germ cells stored before having cancer treatment or enlisting in the military without worrying about damaging their testicles because they already have a spare tucked away for future use.

Cyborg Sperm

For years, scientists have been trying to make drugs that can act like guided missiles, hitting a target with greater accuracy and consequently better results. The use of nanotechnology to create tiny robots that can be injected into the body and guided by remote control is a viable option, but scientists were left with a dilemma. Robots need fuel, but the fuels we have at our disposal often use substances that can be deadly to humans. The bright minds from Dresden Institute for Integrative Nanosciences came up with a solution: make cyborgs out of sperm cells.

The scientists designed micro tubes made of thin sheets of titanium and iron to trap sperm, creating cyborgs that can be controlled through the use of magnets. This solution is both ingenious and cost effective, since sperm cells are harmless to the human body and can swim pretty well on their own, requiring no outside fuel. The cyborg sperm are capable of traveling up to 100 micrometers per second and are small enough to easily access any area of the body. The potential uses for this new technology are numerous, from cancer cures to more effective treatment of infertility.

Antimicrobial Semen

Venereal disease is a big problem not only for humans but also for animals. How does an animal keep itself STD-free if there are no condoms or penicillin shots available for them? If the semen of other animals has the same properties as that of mallard ducks, they are as safe as unprotected sex can be. Recent research by scientists who don’t mind tinkering with duck semen found that mallards have fewer STDs because their semen can destroy bacteria such as E. coli and other pathogens. Additionally, female mallards can identify who has the most antimicrobial semen just by looking at the drake’s bill—the more colorful the bill, the cleaner the semen.

Before you start sending Mother Nature hate mail for giving preferential treatment to ducks, you should know that we have antimicrobial semen, too. Unfortunately for us, and fortunately for big pharmaceuticals, the antimicrobial properties of human semen are not very strong, and its efficacy rapidly decreases in a very short time.

Antidepressant For Women

Those who suffer from depression can attest to how debilitating the illness can be, and antidepressant medication can cause very serious side effects. Fortunately, there is an alternative solution to pill-popping: According to one study, unprotected sex can chase the blues away.

The 2002 study concluded that women who did not use condoms during sex showed fewer signs of depression than those who did. The researchers theorized that the vagina absorbs a number of components from semen, including mood-altering compounds like endorphins, estrone, prolactin, and oxytocin. As an added benefit, the presence of oxytocin produces a stronger bond between the partners and promotes better interaction and acceptance, which can greatly reduce stress and depressive tendencies.

Don’t go throwing out the condoms just yet, though. Gordon Gallup, one of the researchers involved in the study, wants to “make it clear that we are not advocating that people abstain from using condoms. Clearly, an unwanted pregnancy or a sexually transmitted disease would more than offset any advantageous psychological effects of semen.”

Semen Theft

Semen theft is an actual thing that is happening in real life and not just in some lurid hentai fantasy. For most of us who were not raised with any agricultural background, the idea of people stealing semen is hilarious, but it’s serious business to livestock farmers.

Why would anyone in their right minds want to steal semen? Depending on the breed and the proof, cattle semen can fetch hundreds of dollars per shot, while the cheapest still goes for $10. (Every shot is about 0.25–0.5 ml of bull juice.) To put that in perspective, if someone steals a liter of bull semen priced at about $15 per shot, the thief now has about $30,000–60,000 worth of bull juice on his hands. By comparison, a liter of pure gold fetches about $40,000 in the current market.

The reason bull semen is so expensive is because keeping bulls is cost prohibitive to modern-day livestock farmers, forcing them to outsource their semen stock. With the demand for burgers and steaks on the rise and milk a staple of most households, the need for high-quality semen has never been greater. This drove up the price until it became a multimillion-dollar industry. With almost no security on most farms and the potential for a huge payoff, semen is a very tempting target for thieves.

Beauty Products

Humanity’s quest for perfection has led to a thriving industry that is projected to reach $265 billion by 2017. With such large sums at stake, it is no wonder that a variety of bizarre treatments have entered the market. There is certainly no lack of customers willing to try anything to look better than the rest.

When it was discovered that semen contains a compound called spermine, which has powerful antioxidant properties and can delay aging and smooth wrinkles by up to 20 percent, some entrepreneurs put two and two together and made facial creams out of the stuff. The creams now sell for as much as $250 in high-end spas around the world, earning the patronage of celebrities like Heather Locklear. The manufacturers claim that the semen was processed and treated with chemicals to make it better-smelling and eradicate any unwanted viruses.

The hair industry doesn’t want to be left out of the semen craze, either. After a conditioning treatment made from a broth of bull testicles made waves at a Los Angeles salon, top salons in America and the UK have scrambled to whip up their own lines of semen-based treatments for an ever-growing clientele, who claims that bull semen repairs their dry, damaged locks as well as making them thicker and bouncier. Hair stylists claim that the positive effects of bull semen on hair are due to its high protein content.

For those who have not tried semen treatments because of the steep price, fear not. You might have already used a semen-based beauty product without knowing it. One of the binding ingredients in some body lotions and makeup is derived from cod sperm.

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Secret Code Of Rhode Island’s Founder

Roger Williams was the founder of Rhode Island, and during the last years of his life, he filled the margins of a book, An Essay Towards the Reconciling of Differences Among Christians, with a series of notes on various subjects.

Unfortunately, he invented his own set of symbols that no one understood, so the 300-year-old text couldn’t be deciphered by anyone.

Struggling faculty members opened up the challenge of decoding the book to students. A group of undergraduates, led by a math major, undertook a systematic analysis of the symbols.

Initial statistical analysis was unsuccessful, but one of the students figured out that Williams had based his codes on the shorthand he’d learned as a court stenographer in England.

This new insight led to a full decoding of the writing, which apparently covers historical geography, medicine, and infant baptism.

The Mysterious Disappearance of Flight MH370

The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is the kind of mystery that’s not supposed to be possible anymore.

The Information Age is also the age of surveillance, of interconnectedness, of cloud computing, of GPS satellites, of intelligence agencies that can monitor terrorists from space or call in a drone strike from a control console on the other side of the world.

But so far, all the technological eyes and ears of the world have failed to find the missing plane. The Boeing 777 jetliner, with 239 people aboard, silently vanished early Saturday morning on its way to China, disappearing from radar so suddenly and inexplicably that it might as well have flown into another dimension.

As the search for the missing Malaysian jetliner continues, The Post's Joel Achenbach explains several possible scenarios for what could have happened and why this case is puzzling experts.

As the search for the missing Malaysian jetliner continues, The Post's Joel Achenbach explains several possible scenarios for what could have happened and why this case is puzzling experts.

The civilian and military assets of multiple nations, including the United States, are being devoted to the search for wreckage on both sides of the Malay Peninsula, in the Gulf of Thailand and the Strait of Malacca. A Colorado commercial satellite firm, DigitalGlobe, is crowdsourcing the hunt by asking volunteers to scan images for signs of the plane.

But the satellite coverage of the planet isn’t as complete as some people might assume.

“Despite the impression that people get when they use Bing and Google Earth and Google Maps, those high-resolution images are still few and far between,” said John Amos, president of SkyTruth, a nonprofit organization that uses such images to engage the public on environmental issues.

The pilots of Flight MH370 never communicated distress. No one activated an SOS signal. No debris or fuel slick has been found. The plane’s flight recorders may be on the seafloor, buried in sand.

Scenarios abound. Did the plane disintegrate at 35,000 feet from a mechanical failure and sudden decompression? Did the pilot commit suicide by flying it straight down into the sea? Did terrorists blow it up? Did a passenger plant a bomb so that his family would collect life insurance? Was the plane shot down by a jumpy military? Could it have crash-landed in a jungle somewhere, where the passengers are now fighting to survive?

(Click to enlarge)

From a long list of possibilities that range from the unlikely to the extremely far-fetched, the truth about what happened to Flight MH370 will probably emerge eventually. For now, it’s the mystery of the year — and a source of immense anguish for the families of the missing passengers and crew.

There were media reports Tuesday, quoting Malaysia’s air force chief, Gen. Rodzali Daud, saying that military radar picked up the plane Saturday flying far off-course, to the west, hundreds of miles from its scheduled flight path. That would suggest foul play — for example, a cockpit intrusion and forced diversion — if the reports hold up. But these reports still do not reveal where the plane is, whether it crashed on land or at sea, or is intact somewhere.

“As we enter into Day 4, the aircraft is yet to be found,” Malaysia Airlines said Tuesday in the company’s 11th media update.

The airline noted reports that the plane may have changed direction. “All angles are being looked at,” the airline said. “We are not ruling out any possibilities.”

“I can’t think of an airplane getting lost for a long period of time — not a modern, regular airliner with all the communications equipment,” said San Diego-based aviation consultant Hans Weber. “Sometimes a small plane disappears and it’s not found for a small time, but this is a completely different matter.”

One possibility, he said, is that an engine malfunction sent a turbine disk through the plane’s fuselage and caused an instant, catastrophic decompression. But that is very rare during the cruising portion of a flight and would not explain the lack of debris on the sea surface.

The plane had a transponder to signal where it was flying, but the signal vanished over the Gulf of Thailand. Someone could have turned it off intentionally and then diverted the plane to the west, Weber said. He said there was enough fuel aboard to fly at least 1,800 miles. “That airplane could have landed somewhere,” he said. But he acknowledged that this is extremely unlikely, because word of the secret landing would surely have gotten out by now.

“This whole thing is a series of puzzles and, frankly, red herrings,” said Washington-based aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia of Teal Group.

Aboulafia expects the wreckage to be found relatively soon.

“This is a big jet. This is a wide-body,” he said. “That means a lot of structure, a lot of components, a lot of luggage, a lot of fuel. You can’t make it all go away, even if you hit perpendicularly. It doesn’t all go straight, sucked into the seabed. It’s going to be found.”

The case has similarities to that of Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic after leaving Rio de Janeiro, killing all 228 people aboard, in 2009. But in that case, when airspeed measurements failed and led pilots to put the plane into a stall, the computers on the plane sent error messages to computers on land before the plane disappeared. Wreckage on the sea surface was spotted five days after the crash, and most of the bodies were eventually recovered, though it took two years for the black-box flight recorder to be retrieved from the seafloor.

The lack of a solid explanation for the Malaysia Airlines disappearance has spawned rampant speculation. Two Iranian passengers traveling on the plane with stolen passports do not appear to have any connection to terrorist groups, intelligence officials have told reporters.

Weber, the aviation consultant, said a case such as this captures our attention in part because we like to think such things can’t happen. “We like to think that we’re in control. That’s our culture,” Weber said. “Not knowing means you’re not in control. That’s hard for us to take.”

The missing plane may be a mystery, but the search for answers is likely to produce some sooner rather than later. Space aliens don’t abduct Boeing jetliners. Anyone wondering whether there’s the equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle off the coast of Southeast Asia should remember that the Bermuda Triangle is a myth.

The plane is out there somewhere.

The Worst Sports Outfit Fails of All Time

We have seen some truly bizarre and horrendous outfits in our time following sport, but it's the ones that are entirely unsuitable or faulty that cause the biggest problems. Often athletes spend their dream occasions on the biggest stage bemoaning a nightmare situation with a wardrobe malfunction or left with regrets that haunt them forever. Here's a selection of some of the most memorable cases.

Manchester United grey shirts

Sir Alex Ferguson reportedly burst into the Manchester United dressing room at half-time and bellowed: "Get that kit off" with his side struggling against Southampton in their horrible grey shirts. Not bothering to tinker with the design of the shorts or socks, Umbro's famously disgusting shirts looked entirely out of place. They were gone before anyone could really appreciate them *cough*.

Speedo LZR Racer

Ah yes, Speedo's infamous LZR Racer. Described perfectly as 'doping on a hanger', this outfit had to be banned after it caused even average swimmers to shatter records left, right and centre. FINA were forced to issue new rule stipulations as a result in what was at least a triumph for style over the 'Speedo Surfboard'.

Maia Shibutani wardrobe malfunction

American ice dancers Maia Shibutani suffered an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction that disrupted her performance in Sochi. Maia's dress somehow became attached to her brother's costume during a lift midway through their free dance, causing her tights to snag and rip apart. The tights were torn virtually the entire way around her right leg.

Gillian Cooke’s Lycra suit

British bobsledder Gillian Cooke’s skin-tight Lycra suit tragically split as she bent over before boarding her sleigh at a 2010 world championship event in Switzerland. The video racked up over 1.5 million views on YouTube and made her an overnight sensation for all the wrong reasons. How did she perform?

Cathy Freeman outfits

It's so sad when stars have their biggest moments blighted by their outfits, and Cathy Freeman will no doubt look back on the time that she won her famous 400m gold at her home Sydney Olympics with some regret. The unnecessary onesie with attached hoodie has left her special moment memorable for reasons other than her stunning performance under extreme pressure.

High-tech 'Mach 39'

After failing to medal in the first six of 12 events at Sochi, the US speedskating team pleaded with the Olympic committee to let them change their outfits. The skaters successfully ditched their brand new, high-tech 'Mach 39' custom-made outfits to return to an old model they had knocking around.

The Flyers and the Whalers Cooperalls

Back in 1981 and 1982, the Flyers and the Whalers of the NHL proudly unveiled their new trousers, called Cooperalls (named after manufacturing company Cooper). What ensued was an utter disaster as unhappy players found them to be far too slick, and every time they fell over they would keep sliding. The outfits caused numerous injuries until they were banished from sight altogether.

Bobsled suit

The unlikely hero showing some flesh is Canadian bobsledder Christopher Spring, who was born in Australia but chose to represent Canada after becoming hooked by bobsled when visiting the country on a one-year work visa. He thought he'd try on his bobsled suit a day before competition began - and it was lucky he did, as he promptly burst out of it. Oh dear, that gut...

Venus Williams dress

Venus Williams could have made multiple entries into this piece with her very borderline outfit choices and numerous costume disasters. Always pushing the boundaries in terms of what is acceptable, Venus wore this dress/top without the trousers in an earlier match amid much derision. Here is the more tasteful version.

Lisa Pavin ill-fated raingear

Lisa Pavin, wife of team captain Corey Pavin, was given an unlimited budget to design this ill-fated raingear, but due to some dodgy embroidery work the waterproofs were... well... just not waterproof. Tiger Woods et al were forced to splash out £4,000 on new gear at the merchandise tent after being left soaked through and shivering.

Liverpool goalkeeper shirt

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so Liverpool keeper Simon Mignolet should be feeling pretty happy after a rather bizarre, and inadvertent, ‘tribute’ in Egypt. The goalkeeper shirt worn by Mahdi Soliman looked a bit dodgy and that's because it was actually a Liverpool shirt with a sponsor's logo glued on the front!

Roger Federer footwear

Roger Federer may be the prince of tennis, but even he cannot get away with sporting a touch of colour at Wimbledon. The All England Club were not remotely impressed by his choice of footwear at SW19 in 2013 and he was forced to change his shoes midway through the tournament in an upheaval that was a definite distraction. How dare he have a splash of orange!

Cameroon Team shirts and shorts

Back in 2004, Cameroon took to the field wearing quite appalling all-in-ones. FIFA were forced to dust off and promptly enforce their famous 'all shirts and shorts must be separate items' ruling and Sepp Blatter hastily had his say. Surely it should have been banned on grounds of taste, rather than anything silly like an itemised clothing rule, though.

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