The research may help us to understand how some sperm travel such long distances, through difficult terrain, to reach and fertilise an egg. The results are published in the journal eLife.
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Image: Stylised image of swimming sperm cells
Credit: Vasily Kantsler and Raymond E. Goldstein
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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Sperm against the stream
28 May 2014
Like salmon travelling upstream to spawn, sperm cells are extremely efficient at swimming against the current. In a new study, researchers from the University of Cambridge and MIT have identified the physical mechanisms which may allow sperm to navigate inside the human body and stay on course through a variety of environments.