Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Males not needed - science fiction nearly fact
Scientists in Germany have created sperm from stem cells taken from live mouse tissue, grown the cells into live sperm, injected it into mouse eggs and produced live young.
This means that males will soon be redundant; science fiction will become reality.
The novels about alien races composed entirely of females were usually based on parthenogenesis where females identical to the mother were produced. Greenfly do this on Earth now. They can either produce identical females by parthenogenesis or mate with males to produce more males as well as females.
In the new science fiction it will mean that races of females will be able to produce females different from the mother; only females if they so wish, or a few males if they feel so inclined.
