Live birth has evolved independently more than 150 times. The underlying biophysical processes all look quite similar, but new research shows they use completely different genetic tools.
Artist’s rendering of the Chicxulub asteroid entering Earth’s atmosphere 66 million years ago, triggering events that caused a mass extermination.
Roger Harris/Science Photo library via Getty Images
While most women who try for a baby will succeed, some won’t, and some will have fewer children than they had planned to have.
Art historians have long used traditional X-rays, X-ray fluorescence or infrared imaging to better understand artists’ techniques.
Metropolitan Museum of Art/Wikimedia Commons
Breathless headlines of artificial intelligence discovering or restoring lost works of art ignore the fact that these machines rarely, if ever, reveal one secret or solve a single mystery.
For decades, sperm counts and sperm health have been declining.
Carol Yepes/Moment via Getty Images
People are exposed to toxic substances – like pesticides, chemicals in plastics and radiation – every day. A growing body of research shows that this exposure is causing a decline in male fertility.
The story of Walatta Petros, a 17th-century Ethiopian noblewoman who was later made a saint, shows that Christianity has a complex history with abortion and contraception.
A 1721 manuscript/Wikimedia Commons
Abortion and contraception were quite common among premodern Christians, who also celebrated women’s celibacy as superior to marriage and childbearing.
Poisonous or edible?
Ekaterina Morozova/iStock via Getty Images Plus
Warnings of an end to human sperm production have been making headlines recently, now with the added threat of shrinking penises. Is this science or sensationalism?
Yellow crazy ants are one of the world’s worst invasive species. And it turns out they have unique systems of reproduction that make life in the queendom more complicated than we realised.
Perceptions about the role of sperm have changed over time, but asexual reproduction doesn’t need sperm for fertilization.
Getting the job done. A female Asian water dragon (Physignathus cocincinus) produced a daughter (left) without the assistance of a male.
Skip Brown/Smithsonian’s National Zoo
Mercedes Burns, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Parthenogenesis, a form of reproduction in which an egg develops into an embryo without being fertilized by sperm, might be more common than you realized.
This insect’s unique reproductive biology could lead to new ways to control the species in the environment – and prevent the deadly sleeping sickness it spreads to people.
Using new technology to answer questions about shark reproduction.
Tanya Houppermans
Researchers are using a newly developed satellite tag to study previously unknown aspects of tiger shark reproduction. This approach could be used on other difficult-to-study shark species.
The three-toed skink can give birth to live young and lay eggs in the same pregnancy. What can this little critter teach us about the evolution of live birth?
Although the United Nations has raised concerns about the rights of children, advocates say a baby hatch, like the one shown here in Karlsruhe, Germany, can save lives.
(Hardt Foundation)
Since an infant was found in a recycling bin last fall in Saskatoon, advocates have renewed their campaign for baby hatches, places mothers can leave newborns safely and anonymously.
We found that women who had sex at least weekly or monthly were less likely to enter into early menopause compared to women who engaged in sexual activity less often.