Living World / Sex & Reproduction

What Happens When an Ovary Dies?

An unusual condition pulls a woman in the ER—and doctors into a guessing game. 05.01.2008

Finally! A Nearly Foolproof Circumcision.

Ingenious new device means lower HIV rates, safer penises. 03.24.2008

Why Aren’t All People Beautiful?

Maybe the genes that make hot males make distinctly un-hot females. 11.27.2007

The Real Dirty Secret about Sex

Life doesn’t need it, so why do we do it? 11.12.2007

Stupid Science Word of the Month: Shmoo

Shmoos are essential: without them, we would have neither bread nor beer. 11.09.2007

Eating Spiders Can Fix a Bird Brain

Blue tits raise smart, brave chicks by feeding them arachnids. 09.19.2007

Against All Odds, Sex Has Returned

A mite reevolves sex after hundreds of millions of years without it. 06.19.2007

Babies from Bone Marrow

Another potential use for stem cells: procreation. 06.15.2007

The Real Story on Gay Genes

Homing in on the science of homosexuality—and sexuality itself 06.05.2007

Tiny Troublemaker, Giant Genome

A one-celled vaginal parasite sports more genes than its human host. 05.08.2007

Jaron's World: Frozen in Time

Birth reveals the transitional nature of the design. 12.12.2006

Seeds

How flowering plants beat out the competition on ancient earth 11.14.2006

Raw Data: Do Brothers Make You Gay?

Boys with older brothers are more likely to be gay. But is it nurture or nature? 09.01.2006

Secrets Of Bat Machismo

In some species, a successful male doesn't need much of a brain. 05.28.2006

Top Dogs

Steroid hormones give hyenas a head start. 04.28.2006

A Good Reason For Sex

Water fleas elucidate the evolution of gender. 02.24.2006

Cuttlefish In Love

Maritime mating tricks. 02.13.2006

Fertility

Now a woman can store her eggs and conceive a baby sixties. 10.24.2005

T. Rex Sex

T. Rex Sex 09.09.2005

The Biology of . . . Sex Ratios

Want a boy at all costs? The secret may lie in your glucose levels 06.05.2005

Young & Rested

05.01.2005

Forbidden Science

What can studies of pornography, prostitutes, and seedy truck stops contribute to society? 08.02.2004

Pouch or no Pouch

Whether 'tis wiser to nourish a fetus in an external flap or grow it in a womb has shaped a new mystery of evolution 07.25.2004

The Good Egg

Determining when life begins is complicated by a process that unfolds months before a sperm meets an egg 05.29.2004

Brides, Beware!

04.21.2004

Vital Signs

What could be tormenting a woman who lives such a sheltered life? 10.01.2003

Monogamy Kills

09.01.2003

Race to the Egg

07.01.2003

Counting Coots

07.01.2003

Emotions and the Brain: Love

Are we finally getting good enough at biochemistry to understand the mystery—and magic—of romance? 05.01.2003

How Many Fathers are Best?

After 40 years of visiting the Barí Indians in Venezuela, anthropologists have discovered a new twist on family values 04.01.2003

Vital Signs

Where did it go? 10.01.2002

Works in Progress

Can a shot or a pill put the brakes on biology? 10.01.2002

Why We Take Risks

When it comes to evolution, survival of the fittest is only half the story. The handicap principle holds that humans make showy and sometimes dangerous displays of courage to increase their status and attract mates 12.01.2001

The Biology of . . . Morning Sickness

Why do pregnant women get nauseated just when their bodies most need food? 09.01.2000

The Crack Kid Myth

Devastating effects of prenatal cocaine exposure don't pan out. 09.01.2000

Hookers & Haulers

05.01.2000

The Physics of. . . Insect Flight

Insects have long been the best fliers around, but no one knew what kept them in the air--until now 04.01.2000

Bedroom MRI's

03.01.2000

Pheromone Follies

09.01.1999

Passion Pills

A new crop of designer drugs in the works will allow you to pick a potion that guarantees good sex even if you--or your partner--don't much feel like it 09.01.1999

Faking It

08.01.1999

Sex and Control

What do you do if a lot of the struggle takes place at a molecular level and neither person knows it? 05.01.1999

Maa-Maa's Boys

12.01.1998

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Baby

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Baby 05.01.1998

Human in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Fertility clinics have been called the Wild West of medicine—an unregulated world where a dead man can impregnate a stranger and where a child can have five parents. 05.01.1998

Light Elements: Pigeons on Parade

Breeders have created head ruffs, chest frills,and fantails for the lowly, abused bird. 04.01.1998

Light Elements:Pigeons on Parade

Breeders have created head ruffs, chest frills,and fantails for the lowly, abused bird. 03.01.1998

The Year in Science: Evolution 1997

Theropod in Progress 01.01.1998

The Year in Science: Plants 1997

An Ancient Convenience 01.01.1998

Y?

Cheer up, guys. Your favorite chromosome is turning out to be not just an X with something missing. It's a sperm-producing powerhouse. 11.01.1997

Squid Sex

10.01.1997

Against Nature

Contraception, adoption, celibacy--if natural selection favors genes that make people be fruitful and multiply, why do we work so hard to concoct recipies for genetic suicide? 10.01.1997

Popping Polyps

09.01.1997

Brave New Egg

We may soon be able to grow unlimited numbers of perfectly healthy, fertilizable human eggs in the laboratory. Whether we should, of course, is an entirely different question. 04.01.1997

Tusk Tales

02.01.1997

Sperm Futures

01.01.1997

No Shortage Yet

01.01.1997

That's Some Snood

12.01.1996

Gambling With Time

12.01.1996

The Best Ways to Sell Sex

Evolutionary biologists are always struggling to discover what evolution has long ago figured out--such as why, or if, ladies like a massive sperm-depositing organ, and gentlemen prefer paired fat deposits on the female form. 12.01.1996

The Eyes Have It

11.01.1996

Fetal Errors

07.01.1996

Why Women Change

Why are human females hobbled in their prime by menopause? 07.01.1996

Conceptual Shift

03.01.1996

Love by the Line

03.01.1996

Scent of a Man

02.01.1996

Bisexual Flies

01.01.1996

Malaysian Rhythms

01.01.1996

Apes of Wrath

08.01.1995

Sex and the Female Agenda

Most female mammals are anything but subtle when it comes to telling males it's time for sex. Not humans. For good evolutionary reasons, women have found it's much better to keep men in the dark. 09.01.1993

How Many People Can Earth Hold?

Our urge to go forth and multiply could, a century and a half from now, leave earth with more than 694 billion people--some 125 times our current populations. 11.01.1992

How Does a Single Cell Become a Whole Body?

It remains one of biology's deepest enigmas. How does an egg, a tiny squishy blob of a cell, grow into a fully formed organism--a sinuous worm, a delicate fly, a perfect human baby? 11.01.1992

Why Bother?

Sex seems like an unnecessarily complicated means of reproducing. So how did it ever get started? And why did it catch on? 06.01.1992

Sperm Tales

Though dumb, ugly, and uncoordinated, sperm manage to get the job done. 06.01.1992

What Would Life Be Like Without Sex?

What Would Life Be Like Without Sex? 06.01.1992

What's Love Got to Do With It

Sex among our closest relatives is a rather open affair. 06.01.1992

The Aggressive Egg

When it comes to describing fertilization, biologists have got it all wrong. The egg is no passive lady-in-waiting. 06.01.1992

Reversal of Fortune

Where is it written in stone that the man should have all the fun? In some species of animals, evolution has made females the polygamists. 04.01.1992

Portrait in Blubber

Fat, loud, and far from shy, elephant seals don't come across as mysterious creatures. But they hold many surprises. 03.01.1992



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