SCIENTISTS SHOCKED BY DISCOVERING THAT SPERM BREAK A LAW OF PHYSICS
The discovery that sperm appear to violate one of Isaac Newton's laws of motion has left scientists in disbelief. We all have a vague idea of what sperm are: they are tiny tadpoles that swim and are greeted by eggs. However, it appears that sperm can violate one of the physics laws that scientists have been using for a very long time. Mathematical scientist Kenta Ishimoto and his associates at Kyoto University made this discovery.
After looking into the sperm's violation of Newton's third law of motion—which states that "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction"—the team discovered this fact. According to Newton's law, opposing forces work against each other. When two marbles of the same size collide, their force is transferred and they bounce back. Sperm, however, is distinct. Instead of producing an equal and opposite reaction and encountering resistance, the team discovered they can move through viscous fluids.
Ishimoto and the team looked into these non-reciprocal interactions to try and figure out what was happening, studying experimental data on human sperm and modelling the motion of green algae, Chlamydomonas.
Both employ flagella, the tiny tail portion of sperm, to propel the cells ahead; however, whereas highly viscous fluids would typically release their energy, sperm flagella can keep the cells moving forward. According to the team's findings, sperm tails can whip around without losing a lot of energy to the fluid because of their "odd elasticity." The propulsion brought on by the flagella's wave-like motion, however, was not entirely explained by this. The researchers created a new term, "odd elastic modulus," to characterize the internal mechanics of flagella to better explain the process. The flagella were able to prevent the equal and opposite reaction and preserve energy as they bent in response to the liquid.
The researchers discussed their findings, saying: "We studied the odd-bending modulus to decipher the nonlocal, nonreciprocal inner interactions within the material, from solvable simple models to biological flagellar waveforms for Chlamydomonas and sperm cells." They went on to say: "Odd elasticity is a well-defined physical mechanism that generates active forces in solids or in other systems in which a generalized elasticity can be defined without using an elastic potential, rather than a generic term for activity in solids."
The group went on to say that their research could help with the development of tiny, self-assembling robots that resemble living things or with a deeper comprehension of the fundamental ideas behind collective behavior. The new finding is interesting, but be ready to be disgusted by yet another fact about sperm. We wished we were unaware that Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet, is not only a willing donor but also a multibillionaire. Musk has previously voiced his concerns about the birth rate on Twitter, and he may believe he has the answer.
"The biggest danger civilization faces by far is a collapsing birth rate," he wrote. Additionally, he tweeted: "The trend is that nearly all countries will be well below replacement rate, and many are already well below it. "This is not a "debunked theory," but just a fact. The replacement rate is 2.1 children, and the global population will soon fall below that threshold. Over the years, the Tesla CEO reportedly shared his seed with a few friends and acquaintances, according to a New York Times report. And even though I wish I didn't know that, it's something to keep your mind busy.
