New tool to test sperm and improve fertility success rates

August 28th, 2009 Britain's population tops 61 million for 1st timeLONDON — Britain's population took its biggest jump in almost half a century last year, as a baby boom made new births rather than immigration the main contributor to growth for the first time in a decade. Government figures show that 791,000 babies were born in the year to mid-2008 — 33,000 more than the year before — helping to bring Britain's population to 61.4 million.

August 6th, 2009 LONDON - A new study has challenged one of the most established and accepted standards in the social sciences - human fertility levels tend to decline as countries advance towards high levels of social and economic development. It has shown a reversal of fertility decline in highly developed countries once they reach a certain level of wealth.

August 2nd, 2009 LONDON - Discovering a lock-and-key mechanism between sperm and egg cells, scientists may have moved a step further towards sparing infertile couples the pain, anguish and expense of fruitless IVF treatments. Dr. Martin Brinkworth, a member of the team at the universities of Bradford and Leeds that discovered the lock-and-key mechanism, says that their work could help understand why so many couples with no apparent reproductive problems are unable to conceive.

July 10th, 2009 LONDON - Attractive males release fewer sperm per mating to maximise their chances of producing offspring across a range of females, according to a new study. The findings by researchers at UCL (University College London) and the University of Oxford suggest that, paradoxically, mating with attractive males may be less fertile than those with unattractive ones.

July 9th, 2009 LONDON - Scientists are calling for more tests to ensure that artificial sperm created by some British researchers are identical to their natural counterpart, saying that further proof may make them a valuable tool to understand male infertility. Karim Nayernia and his colleagues at the University of Newcastle recently treated male embryonic stem cells (ESCs) with a range of substances, which converted them first into germline stem cells, and finally into spermatogonial stem cells.

June 18th, 2009 Tiny crustacean big on reproductionWASHINGTON — When it comes to sexual reproduction, it turns out that size does matter, at least for a group of ancient crustaceans called ostracods. Modern versions of these tiny animals also have extra large sperm, but not to the extent of their relatives 100 million years ago, researchers report in Thursday's edition of the journal Science.

June 16th, 2009 LONDON - A newly launched packaged tour is luring Brit lesbians by offering marriage and fertility deal in Spain. And, thus, a large number of lesbians in UK are turning to Spanish fertility clinics, as they seek insemination where sperm donors still have a right to anonymity.

June 15th, 2009 LONDON - Biologists studying sperm whales in the North Atlantic have found that mothers use organised babysitting sessions so they can go hunting for food. Scientists at the University of St Andrews, Durham University and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, have discovered that females share responsibility for the younger members of a pod by establishing networks of carers.he whales are specially adapted to allow them to make long, deep dives.

May 1st, 2009 LONDON - Spiders in Israel have been seen indulging in a violent but evolutionarily effective mating strategy, which guarantees direct fertilisation of eggs in the ovaries. In the so-called traumatic insemination, males of the Harpactea sadistica species pierce the abdomen of females, and thus fertilise their eggs directly in the ovaries.

April 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Fertility specialists heralded the birth of a baby girl who was conceived through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) at their lab with sperm frozen 21 years ago, a world record. Chris Biblis, 38, of Charlotte (US) was treated for leukemia from age 13 to 18.

April 11th, 2009 NEW YORK - Whom to blame if the sperm from a sperm bank leads to complications in children? An American teenager, who was born with a genetic disorder called X syndrome causing mental impairment, has filed a suit against the sperm bank that her mother used to conceive her. Thirteen-year-old Brittany Donovan from Pennsylvania is suing the sperm bank, Idant Laboratories in New York, after a judge gave her the go-ahead to pursue the case under product liability laws applicable to manufacturing defects.

March 3rd, 2009 LOS ANGELES - A fertility clinic here has fulfilled Adolf Hitler's dream of creating a 'dream race.'' The Los Angeles Fertility Institutes, run by Dr Jeff Steinberg who played a key role in the birth of the world's first test-tube baby Louise Brown in Britain in 1978, says it is ready to deliver the first 'designer baby' next year. Using a technique called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), the clinic says it will allow would-be parents to choose the gender, skin, eye and hair colour and other physical traits of their babies.

February 2nd, 2009 JOHANNESBURG - Gaining the top spot in world cricket after the unprecedented success of beating the Australians in both a test and one-day series on their home turf presents new challenges for the South African cricket squad, coach Mickey Arthur said here. Arthur said he was under no illusion that the landscape of South African cricket had changed irreversibly after the success of the past two months in Australia.

January 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Mating with a female can boost the male's sexual longevity by a dramatic 20 percent, according to a study. A team, headed by Ralph Brinster, of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, found that male mice housed with females maintained fertility levels until 32 months - a six-month increase in fertility over solitary males.

January 20th, 2009 TORONTO - Female behaviour determines the quality and quantity of sperm of her mating partner, says a new Canadian study. If she is promiscuous, she can trigger changes in the quality and quantity of sperm of a male as he has to compete with other males to impregnate her.