Monthly Archives: February 2012

Beetle moms benefit from absentee dads

Posted on February 29, 2012 by

What’s good for the goose ain’t always good for the gander–until it is. In evolutionary biology-speak, sexual selection happens when one sex benefits from something that harms the other. For example, male seed beetles use their spiky penises to transfer … Continue reading →

Posted in Sexual conflict | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The bird with the “worst reproductive strategy”

Posted on February 22, 2012 by

I saw this awesome blog post on i09 about a rare New Zealand bird species, the kakapo. They only mate in good food years (about 1 in 5 years) and have apparently no survival instinct or skills. Human intervention is bringing … Continue reading →

Posted in Sexual behavior | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The pill: Not just about contraception

Posted on February 21, 2012 by

There’s a lot of noise going on right now about contraception. Obama wants to increase access to it by making contraceptives covered by insurance. Representatives of religious organizations believe that by paying for said insurance they are “condoning” contraceptive use, … Continue reading →

Posted in Sex and society | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Worm sperm protein turns sperm on, then keeps rival sperm off

Posted on February 20, 2012 by

I recently wrote about a paper describing a protease in worm seminal fluid that helps activate male sperm (as opposed to hermaphrodite sperm). Now, another group has published a (sort of) follow-up. They found a protease inhibitor that likely blocks … Continue reading →

Posted in Eggs and sperm, Seminal fluid | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

An unchecked anti-cancer gene wreaks havoc on sperm

Posted on February 17, 2012 by

Each of us has over 3 billion base pairs of DNA in every one of our cells. And every time a cell divides, there is a risk of making a critical mistake in a few bases that can eventually lead … Continue reading →

Posted in Eggs and sperm | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment