They’ve just announced the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology, and it’s Robert Edwards, a Brit at the University of Cambridge. He won for developing in vitro fertilization.
This is not a name that was in the air about the Prize, and in fact, nobody won our our guess-the-Laureate-contest. But you still have until 12:30 GMT Thursday to guess the winner of the Literature prize. Winners get an autographed copy of WEIT; post your guesses here.
My own feeling is that fertility treatment should not be a focus of major research. There is no shortage of people – far from it, no one addresses the problem of humans being too productive.
Interesting story in New Scientist (sorry – wash my mouth out…) that IVF creates a bias towards males of 53% instead of the ‘natural’ 51.5%.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827803.700-artificial-fertility-treatments-create-a-sex-bias.html
I have a question about that research that has been bugging the crap out of me. The sex of the baby is determined by genes so how does the stage at which the embryo is implanted affect sex? I can’t see how something after fertilisation could effect genes so I keep thinking that it must be something to do with fertilisation process or that girl embryos have more complications but the doctor (who presumably knows more about this than I do) says that the medium the embryo is grown in can affect gender. It’s been all over the news here in Australia but you know how they are with science stories. Can someone who understands the biology here explain to me whether or not this story is stupid.
Oh yes – I see it was an Australian/New Zealand study. The abstract says “Conclusions: The change in the sex ratio at birth of SET babies is associated with the ART regimen. The mechanism of these effects remains unclear. Fertility clinics and patients should be aware of the bias in the sex ratio at birth when using ART procedures.”
I cannot comment other than to say that the whole area of sex ratios is a fascinating issue.
Something like one in three pregnancies are spontaneous aborted, many so early that they go unnoticed. There is some sex bias in that risk, and it is also linked to environmental factors. One example: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1241196/
They are talking about certain chemicals having different effects depending on sex and that makes sense, male and female embryos have physiological and chemical differences as they develop.
However coming back to the original study; when the professor who conducted the research was on the local news he said quite clearly that he thought the procedure was affecting the babies sex not that sex affected the procedure (which was my assumption). It seems obviously wrong and has been presented without any counter argument so I’m wondering if it’s just my limited understanding of biology. I just want to know if there is any plausibility in what he has been saying, he seems quite an accomplished scientist.
Male sperm swim faster. That have any bearing?
When IVF first happened, I wondered if some people have trouble conceiving because there are genetic defects and there might be a correlation between those genetic defects and others. Has anyone looked at the statistics?
Im pretty grossed out by the ‘infertility’ aspect of this research. Genetic vanity is disgusting, whether you are fertile or not. Too many kids need good parents for me to get too excited about creating more kids.
HOWEVER.
The technology is cool, and I hope it can be combined with gene therapy to make awesome humans. I have never understood why ‘Brave New World’ was supposed to be dystopian.
And the Ignobels – here in a blog from Christie Wilcox –
http://scienceblogs.com/observations/2010/10/the_ig_nobels_have_been_announ.php?utm_source=nytwidget
His discovery can only help us improve our overall understanding of reproduction. From what I’ve read in other science journals, human beings might lose that ability within a few generations. This might be the seed of long term species survival.
…are we worth it?!
I must admit that the award doesn’t diminish peoples view of IVF babies. Nevertheless, we are so grateful for having him born to enable longed-for babies to be born, I wonder what happens if he isn’t born.