Alice Roberts

Chance is hugely significant in biology. In fact, the presence of apparent randomness in so many aspects of biology - from mutations in DNA to the chance involved in that one sperm reaching that one egg that became you - suggests that randomness is useful, even necessary, in very many cases.

English Scientist

Robert Winston

Women of child-bearing age steadily run out of eggs by the continuous process of cell death. While reading a copy of the 'Guardian' carefully from cover to cover, a normal woman will have lost on average two eggs - while, typically, a normal man will have made 70,000 new sperm.

British Scientist

Dave Barry

It is a well-documented fact that guys will not ask for directions. This is a biological thing. This is why it takes several million sperm cells... to locate a female egg, despite the fact that the egg is, relative to them, the size of Wisconsin.

American Journalist

Edith Widder

Giant squid aren't rare. Based on the number of beaks that have been found in the stomachs of sperm whales, it's thought that there are actually millions of them in the ocean, and yet, we haven't seen them.

American Scientist

Emily Martin

When we anthropomorphize the egg and sperm, when we turn them into a miniature bride and groom complete with personalities, what effect does this have on abortion legislation?

Sarah Michelle Gellar

Just because you donate sperm does not make you a father. I don't have a father. I would never give him the credit or acknowledge him as my father.

American Actress

Shoojit Sircar

I never thought a film about a sperm donor could work with audiences in India, but it did.

Indian Director

Mitt Romney

When sperm and egg unite, something goes from inanimate to animate. It is life.

American Politician

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Man comes not from an egg but from an animalcule that is found in male sperm.

Dutch Scientist

Emil Cioran

Romanian Philosopher

Used specifically to refer to male reproductive cells, not females.

Biological Term

Mentioned in discussions about pregnancy and conceiving.

Fertility Context

Also refers to reproductive cells in animals, not exclusively humans.

Non-human Sperm

Refers to an oily substance from whales, historically valued.

Historical Product

Was commonly used in industry before modern synthetic materials.

Industrial Use

Relates to the sperm whale, a species that has faced hunting pressures.

Endangered Species

 In some bed bug species, the females have evolved an entirely new set of genitalia on their right hand flanks where the males usually pierce them. That allows them to maintain the power to filter out unwanted sperm with their genitalia. And duck vaginas are shaped like a clockwise spiral

The evolution of animal...

 Shy but ambitious pig farmers, however, can purchase a -- this is true -- a sow vibrator, that hangs on the sperm feeder tube to vibrate. Because, as I mentioned, the clitoris is inside the vagina. So possibly, you know, a little more arousing than it looks. And I also said to her,

Mary Roach: 10 things...

 when mother rats weren't attentive enough to their pups, genes in the babies that helped them manage stress were methylated and turned off. And it might not stop with that generation. Most epigenetic marks are erased when egg and sperm cells are formed.

What is epigenetics? -...

 The tiny oocyte moves along the fallopian tube. A pregnancy can only occur if the egg is fertilized by a sperm cell within the next 24 hours. Otherwise, the egg's escapade ends, and the window for pregnancy closes for that month.

How menstruation works -...

 The egg is the largest cell in the body and is protected by a thick, extracellular shell of sugar and protein called the zona pellucida. The zona thwarts the entry and fusion of more than one sperm,

How in vitro fertilizatio...

 Other proteins in cell membranes can help fuse two different bilayers. That can work to our benefit, like when a sperm fertilizes an egg, but also harm us, as it does when a virus enters a cell.

Cell membranes are way...

 And thousands are engulfed and destroyed. But the fittest survive, only to run into a protective cloud that shrouds the egg and causes some of the sperm to explode prematurely.

Elephant Mating,...

 That is your sample on there. TIM Time for the moment of truth. TIM This is it? Wow. This is-- it's mind-blowing to see your individual sperm.

The Global Spermageddon...

 remarkably it takes more than one sperm to start a new life the extra sperm probably releases substances that start the embryos development

How Are Eggs Made? PIPE...

 sperm whale families may contain several generations of daughters with their babies overseen by a wise old grandmother