Somewhat tongue in cheek, an Australian bioethicist has suggested that men, like pandas and polar bears, are the new endangered species. Now that it is possible to do without direct male intervention, thanks to reproductive technology, women have emerged as clearly the superior sex. “Girl babies, therefore have a significantly more ‘open’ future than boy babies,” says Dr Robert Sparrow, of the Centre for Human Bioethics, Monash University. He suggests that we should aim for a “post-sex” future by sex-selecting girls until humanity develops true hermaphrodites, or persons who have two sexes. ~ The Age (Melbourne), July 11

Well, fantasy or not, fertility scientists are working on projects which could make this possible. A Brazilian scientists with papers in Nature to her credit has announced that mice have produced human sperm. Irina Kerkis, of the Butantan Institute, of São Paulo, says that the technique could mean that infertile men could produce sperm, as long as they are willing to involve mice in the process. Her method is intriguing. She took stem cells from the pulp of teeth and injected them into male mice. The cells migrated to the mice testes where they produced viable sperm.

Other scientists are sceptical, as in past experiments human sperm cells failed to mature in mouse testes. However, the direction of the research is clear. Artificial gametes are on the way. ~ Sunday Times (London), July 6; New Scientist, July 8