SCIENCE ELIMINATES NEED FOR MEN WITH TEST TUBE SPERM

July 9 2009

Newcastle, UK – For as long as human society has existed the differences and conflicts between the two sexes has helped define its nature. In western society the gap between those differences has narrowed dramatically in recent years in respect to
social structure, though the interpersonal differences remain and continue to be a
source of both tension and saturnalia. Long has science sought to understand the differences between the sexes in an effort to determine how alike and how different they truly are, but a new breakthrough may have eliminated the need to ask that question by simply removing one gender entirely.

A team of English researchers have for the first time successfully created human sperm from stem cells. The new technique is designed to be used to study how sperm forms and spends its lifetime in effort to better understand how to help men with infertility problems. Though as yet the sperm cannot be used for embryo implantation, the scientists claim that with only a few small
changes fertilization would be theoretically possible, leaving little or no genetic need for men and possibly forever altering the course of human history.

“This is an important development as it will allow researchers to study in detail how sperm forms and lead to a better understanding of infertility in men -- why it happens and what is causing it. This understanding could help us develop new ways to help couples suffering infertility so they can have a child which is genetically their own.” said research team leader Professor Karim Nayernia. “This is very amazing and very exciting. They have heads, they have tails and they move. The shape is not quite normal nor the movement, but they contain the proteins for egg activation.”

Professor Nayermia went on to say that in only a few years it will be possible to isolate stem cells from other parts of the anatomy, such as the skin, which could then be used to produce sperm cells. Though the technique would primarily be used to aid infertile men, the possibility of a world without men, such as that depicted in the 1968 film Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, is coming closer to a reality.

“Men have long shaped the world and the way it works. Men have led the charge to forge new nations, wage wars, create science, art, and religion and have been the
primary manipulators of the world we have today. Women of course, at least until the last century, played more of a behind the scenes role. Essential yes, but limited. That could all change now that men are no longer, strictly speaking, necessary,” said Scrape TV Science analyst Dr. Howard Poe. “There would of course still be great benefits to having men as a part of the population. Many of the great thinkers, artists, and statesmen have been male and that is not a coincidence or a result of opportunity. Men are fifty per cent of the species and have contributions to make. Of course with the genetic contribution no longer an issue we could always give it a shot.”

Small tribes in Africa and South America have thrived for centuries with little or no male input into cultural matters, though none of those tribes have had the success of nations in the Northern Hemisphere, something which could act as an argument against an all male society.

“My recommendation would be to open up an isolated area of the world and
experiment. Start with a small area like the Bahamas and then move to something bigger like Australia. Simply take all the men away and see how the society unfolds and then we would have a model for future culture with only a single gender,” continued Poe. “My guess is you would have a lot of bickering and a lot of infighting that would escalate to ridiculous proportions. After all there would be no one to complain to or about and those tensions would just build and build until all out war began. It would of course be a much sexier society.”

Unlike most films depicting all women societies it is believed that an Earth without men would not result in a planet filled with bikini clad females.

Anna Phillips, Science Correspondent

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