This is a beautifully done movie, although it does get a bit silly in the end.
One point this brought to mind: have you ever looked at sperm? They’re amazing. We humans do go through a single-celled haploid stage which is the focus of some very intense selection pressure, and humans in their haploid phase possess some impressive abilities. No brains, but the sperm are motile and exhibit seeking behavior. Eggs are also wonderful — they are precisely balanced on the edge of criticality, ready to erupt into a cascade of changes with a single stimulus. It’s easy to dismiss gametes as blobs and slime, but they have all the charm and complexity of bacteria … and I say that completely non-ironically.
(via Street Anatomy)
You ever notice how viral a sperm is structurally and in how it works to fertilize an egg?
I think I love you, Doc Myers. You make me look normal. Or, well, more normal. Or something…
A colony of those charming and complex organisms was lately resident in my sinus cavities, with the upshot that I was blowing bean-sized clots of blood out of my nose.
I am even less well-disposed towards gametes. After all, they have the potential to turn into babies. I’d rather be on Biaxin for the rest of my life…
Huh. And here I thought my Human Sexuality teacher was bullshitting us about them causing tissue irritation by trying to penetrate non-egg cells… O.o
Yeah, but do you know what’s better than sperm? Being told that the lab confirms that none of the little buggers are ever going to get out of me again. I mean, I love my kids, but I am just about out of love for crying, crapping, pissing, and moaning.
Azkyroth, I believe Interrobang was referring to bacteria, not sperm :D
We humans do go through a single-celled haploid stage which is the focus of some very intense selection pressure, and humans in their haploid phase possess some impressive abilities. No brains, but the sperm are motile and exhibit seeking behavior.
So, you’re saying they’re sorta like frat-boys then?
All the charm and complexity of bacteria?! I beg your pardon: bacteria are indeed fascinating organisms, but they are still prokaryotes. If you want charm and complexity in cells, you just cannot top eukaryotes. Or, as a friend put it, “Eukaryotes: they have more stuff.”
I looked at my sperm recently. Had to give a sample for my upcoming vasectomy. Seems a shame but it’s for the best.
I was so expecting the sperm to crash into a contraceptive diaphragm, burst into flames and then explode.
Well, it WAS an action movie, right?
I’m sorry, but, when the sperm came upon the overilluminated egg (where is the light source in the female reproductive system, anyway?), I was so thinking of South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut, the movie. It was just about like that, even if it was a different part.
It is mind-boggling that we males carry around billions of these little egg-seeking missiles, nearly every one capable of autonomously finding its way up anatomical tunnels many thousands of times its own length to reach its gamete partner.
Now if only we could get them to do something useful, like fetch beer or find the remote.
And of course everyone is sacred!
That’s every one!
You expressed it just right. Every time I hear some blithering idiot ask when human life begins, I want to say, “Begin? It never ends. It just continuous cycles between haploid and diploid, as we evolve, from the species we were some hundreds of thousands of years past, to the one we are now, to the one we will be in the future.”
People just don’t get biology. ;-)
“…nearly every one capable of autonomously finding its way up anatomical tunnels many thousands of times its own length to reach its gamete partner.”
Actually, if I recall correctly, I think even in a healthy male a substantial proportion of sperm are messed up in some way (like close to half?). Don’t take my word for it, though. I’m one of those folks who study “the charm and complexity of bacteria”.
“It’s easy to dismiss gametes as blobs and slime, but they have all the charm and complexity of bacteria … and I say that completely non-ironically.”
Much the same could be said of humans. Or some of them, anyway.
I live next to the Chester County Planned Parenthood in West Chester, PA. Anti-abortion protesters are out in front of the building 5 to 6 days a week. I can hear their irrational screams while sitting in my house. It’s torture.
But I do occasionally get back at them. I told one guy that he killed millions of innocent humans when he jacked off in the shower this morning. Every sperm is sacred, indeed!! He didn’t follow my reasoning.
I need ideas on my next plan. So far the leading idea is to drive up next to their prayer vigil blaring Ice Cube’s “Predator” album at top volume. “Make it rough…” Do Christians like gangster rap as background music to prayer?? Hey, if I have to listen to their violent speech when I’m sitting in my house, they’ll have to put up with a little bit of Ice Cube’s violent speech while they talk to their imaginary friend.
Are sperm actually subject to much selective pressure? Is there really that significant a relationship between which genes an individual sperm is carrying for the next generation and structural features of that sperm? If the structure and efficacy of an individual sperm depends more on structures in the (diploid) sperm-creation areas in the testes, I’m not certain there’d be significant pressure to make individual spermatozoa incredibly efficient.
Sure, the whole get-to-a-new-human system is subject to intense selective pressure, but that can be done with quantity instead of quality.
“…nearly every one capable of autonomously finding its way up anatomical tunnels many thousands of times its own length to reach its gamete partner.”
Thankfully, the female tract is there to give them a map. You know how much men hate to ask for directions.
Is it true that the sperm cell only has one enlarged mitochondrion?
“Is it true that the sperm cell only has one enlarged mitochondrion?”
No, but they do have many mitochondria located near the midpiece.
Plus, as the only uniflagellated cell of the human body, sperm cells are the most similar ones we have to our last unicellular ancestor(at least in terms of motility; true, the organelles are pared down quite a bit).
“…it does get silly in the end.”
Just like sex.
I do get tired of the notion that sperm are male and eggs are female.