UK scientists have successfully differentiated human sperm from stem cells in a petri-dish. The article itself talks worriedly about "the end of men", but its not about that. Instead, it means an end to male infertility - either directly, because infertile men will just be able to submit some skin cells and have sperm for IVF grown to order, or indirectly, due to the massive research avenues it opens up. As the article points out,
"Sperm production takes 15 years in a human and there are thousands of factors that could affect it," said Professor Nayernia. "We can investigate these factors in the laboratory in a matter of months with this technique."Unfortunately, they didn't have success in producing sperm from female stem-cells (allowing women to be fathers in a genetic sense), and they think that this is impossible - but its still a stunning breakthrough and thrilling stuff.
