Sperm don't swim ! They move in rollicking spin, new study finds

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Sperm don't swim anything like we thought they did, new study finds

By Stephanie Pappas - Live Science Contributor 11 days ago

New research upends more than three centuries of beliefs about how sperm move.

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The sperm tail moves very rapidly in 3D like a rotating drill bit, not to-and-fro as 2D microscope data suggested.

(Image: © polymaths-lab.com)

 

Under a microscope, human sperm seem to swim like wiggling eels, tails gyrating to and fro as they seek an egg to fertilize. 

But now, new 3D microscopy and high-speed video reveal that sperm don't swim in this simple, symmetrical motion at all. Instead, they move with a rollicking spin that compensates for the fact that their tails actually beat only to one side. 

 

"It's almost like if you're a swimmer, but you could only wiggle your leg to one side," said study author Hermes Gadêlha, a mathematician at the University of Bristol in the U.K. "If you did this in a swimming pool and you only did this to one side, you would always swim in circles. … Nature in its wisdom came [up] with a very complex, ingenious way to go forward." 

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