‘The second half of a man’s life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half.’ –Dostoevsky
Put it in the right place and sperm generally knows where to go. But researchers who use sperm in experiments have a harder time controlling where these swimmers end up. Put sperm onto a petri dish or glass slide, for example, and it’ll wander off in any direction it pleases.
Today, Alejandra Guidobaldi at CONICET in Argentina and a few pals say they’ve worked out a way to control the direction in which sperm swims to keep it on the straight and narrow. Their discovery could lead to new ways of generating a uniform stream of sperm and perhaps even a jet of the stuff.
