TalkHappy Father’s Day: An Ode to the Sperm Cell
Natalie Angier has compiled all you ever wanted to know about the marvels of the sperm cell in a rapturous ode to our paternal biology:
[I]n our insistence that men are more than elaborately engineered gamete vectors, we neglect the marvels of their elaborately engineered gametes. As the scientists who study male germ cells will readily attest, sperm are some of the most extraordinary cells of the body, a triumph of efficient packaging, sleek design and superspecialization. …when cast into the forbidding environment of the female reproductive tract, they will learn on the job and change their search strategies and swim strokes as needed.
Sperm are also fast and as cute as tadpoles.
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