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Latest Sexual Health News<\/h3>\n
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FRIDAY, July 31, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
If you ever had a sex-ed class in school, you have probably seen a visual of sperm swimming<\/a> with a wagging tail. Now, high-tech tools have shattered that view of how sperm move.<\/p>\n More than 300 years ago, a Dutch scientist used an early microscope to observe human sperm in motion. He saw that they appeared to swim using a tail that moved from one side to the other.<\/p>\n But scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek only had access to a 2D microscope.<\/p>\n And sperms’ rapid spinning causes an illusion when seen from above with a 2D microscope, according to a study published July 31 in the journal Science Advances<\/i>. That illusion makes it appear that the tail moves from side to side, as Leeuwenhoek described.<\/p>\n Now, an international team has deployed a high-speed camera, high-tech microscope and mathematics to show that the sperm tail only wiggles on one side.<\/p>\n A one-sided stroke<\/a> would typically cause something to swim in circles, but the researchers explained that a sperm’s ability to move forward is similar to an otter.<\/p>\n “Human sperm figured out if they roll as they swim, much like playful otters corkscrewing through water, their one-sided stroke<\/a> would average itself out, and they would swim forwards,” said researcher Hermes Gadelha. He’s a senior lecturer in the department of engineering mathematics at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n To this day, when sperm is looked at under a microscope in clinics or laboratories, 2D lenses are typically used, promoting the illusion first seen by van Leeuwenhoek centuries ago.<\/p>\n The study authors hope that their findings will improve understanding of the mysteries of human fertility<\/a> and reproduction.<\/p>\n “With over half of infertility<\/a> caused by male factors, understanding the human sperm tail is fundamental to developing future diagnostic tools to identify unhealthy sperm,” Gadelha said in a university news release.<\/p>\n — Serena McNiff<\/p>\n ![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
Copyright \u00a9 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n
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