It could be more difficult to have a baby in space because sperm could get lost, a new study has warned.
Research suggests that sperm’s navigation may be confused by the lack of gravity and therefore make it harder to fertilise eggs.
That is the conclusion from a new study that took sperm samples from three mammals, including humans, and put them through a machine that simulates zero gravity conditions by flipping cells. The sperm were then put through a maze that mimicked the female reproductive tract.
They appeared to get lost, finding it difficult to make it through the maze.
“This is the first time we have been able to show that gravity is an important factor in sperm’s ability to navigate through a channel like the reproductive tract,” said senior author Nicole McPherson from Adelaide University.
“We observed a significant reduction in the number of sperm that were able to successfully find their way through the chamber maze in microgravity conditions compared to normal gravity.
If you want to spend a long duration of time out in space and live healthily and breed, then you need to create artificial gravity either by rotating and generating centripetal force, or accelerating at 1g. Both are technologically challenging.
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