Co-operation and not Competition Helps Sperm

There’s new scientific evidence that will frustrate those heterosexual supremacists that champion notions of “survival of the fittest” and think that humanity is the product of a fierce competition for resources. Instead, researchers have suggested that even at the level of the humble sperm, co-operation is a more successful strategy than competition. Studies of sperm in bovines, which closely behave like sperm in humans, show that the cells tend to either swim alone or clump in groups, working together to reach towards the egg. New research published in “Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology”, and quoted in “Science News” magazine, reveal that sperm that swim in co-operating groups tend to stay in target and are more likely to fertilize the egg. James R Riordan, reporting for “Science News” says “Whether alone or in groups, sperm naturally tend to swim upstream. However, clusters of sperm in the experiment did a better job heading upstream into the mucus flow, while individual sperm were more likely to head off in other directions. Despite the speedier travels of some individual sperm, a poorer ability to point upstream hampered the progress of sperm loners compared with slower moving clusters.”