Diane Kelly

Watch How Alligators Make Water Boil with Their Infrasound Mating Calls

This is amazing. During the breeding season, American alligators call for mates with a deep loud roar. It’s preceded by a pulse of infrasound that sets the water dancing. The phenomenon might create waves that help potential mates find the gators they like best. Or it could just be an accident, a side effect of…

The lung-on-a-chip honored by the Design Museum in London this yearisn’t a one-off design, but a versatile method that can be applied to lots of human tissues. To wit: the National Institutes of Health just developed a placenta-on-a-chip, combining fetal and maternal cells to study how they interact. Contact the author at [email protected].

The Best Stories About Scientists Working Together and Falling in Love

Two weeks ago, Nobel-prize winning cell biologist Tim Hunt created a storm of controversy when he made a comment about how he can’t work with women because he always falls in love with them, or they with him. But why does he think love in the lab is such a problem? Here are four stories…

Here’s How Men Make 200 Million Sperm Every Day

Human testes are masters of mass production, spitting out sperm at a rate of 200 million per day. But that doesn’t mean the process is fast–it takes 64 days to make a sperm. The organ keeps the count high with an assembly-line anatomy that scales up sperm development from a trickle to a flood. About…

What Should Parents Do With Their Spare IVF Embryos?

When in vitro fertilization was developed in the 1970s, critics of the technique imagined a world a la Aldous Huxley, filled with assembly-line designer babies. It didn’t turn out like that. Instead, the procedure simply gave infertile couples another route to start a family. But it also created a problem that critics never imagined. Couples…

Misshapen Penis Corpse Flower Blooms At Cornell University

The Sumatran titan arum’s species name – Amorphophallus titanum – means “giant misshapen penis”. Guess what its flower looks like? At full growth, the flower stands 3 meters high, pulses with heat, and smells like rotting meat. The heat and stench attracts flies and beetles, which pollinate the plant. The whole show lasts 2 days.…

It’s True, Scar Tissue Can Bend Your Penis (NSFW)

It’s normal for a penis to curve a little when it’s erect, but Peyronie’s disease pushes that curve to alarming extremes. It doesn’t usually muck with a guy’s ability to get it up, but once the penis is erect, it can deviate 30° or more from its normal line of action. The curvature can be…

Students Say Doc Forced Them To Drink, Take Ketamine, Examine His Penis

John Hagmann’s misconduct hearing with the Virginia Board of Medicine was today. He didn’t show up. But students he had allegedly abused were there, and testified how Hagmann subjected them to invasive medical procedures, bizarre drug- and alcohol-fueled “cognition” experiments, and sexual assault. According to reporting by Reuters, Hagmann’s medical license was suspended in March,…

This Documentary Uses Science to See Who Loves the Hardest

Six adults (and one kid), one fMRI machine, five minutes to love someone (or something) as hard as possible. In The Love Competition, a short documentary first featured in McSweeney’s Wholphin #15, filmmaker Brent Hoff and Stanford University neuroscientists try to see which type of love makes the brain most active. Contestants — including a…

This Book Got The Author Sentenced to Three Months Hard Labor

Charles Knowlton didn’t think much of the laws of Massachusetts, at least when they interfered with his medical practice. By the time he opened a practice in the town of Ashfield, he had already been arrested in Amherst, MA for selling “infidel” books and had spent two months in the Worcester County Jail for grave…

“Virgin Births” Won’t Save The Smalltooth Sawfish From Extinction

The critically endangered smalltooth sawfish was recently found to be capable of asexual reproduction. It’s an exciting discovery for many reasons, but breathless claims by the media that sawfish could save their species from extinction by resorting to virgin births are wrong, wrong, wrong. Let’s explore why. For those who missed the news: A couple…

Men Are Pressuring Themselves to Become “Spornosexuals”

Nose jobs. Tummy tucks. Botox. Breast implants. Fad diets. Historically, most of the pressure to look a particular way to be considered beautiful and sexy has been put on women. But according to an article by Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore at Aeon, men are starting to feel the heat, as well. From the article: Images of this…

There’s Better Birth Control Out There. Why Don’t Women Hear About It?

Teen birthrates are at an all-time low, but unintended pregnancies among young women are still a serious problem that disproportionately affects low-income families. A new study in The Lancet suggests that more training for healthcare providers could improve contraceptive use for these women. Cynthia Harper, a professor at the Bixby Center for Reproductive Health at…

Are you a woman with opinions about sex? For her doctoral work in Psychology at James Cook University, Hollie Baxter is running a survey to learn more about women’s attitudes about sexual relationships. If you’re a woman over the age of 18 of any sexual orientation, single or hooked up, she wants to hear from…

Why This Adorable Squid Cuddles For Hours After Sex

Southern dumpling squids (Euprymna tasmanica) are natives of shallow, sandy Australian sea beds, and their small, squat bodies and huge eyes combine to make them one of the most frickin-adorable animals on the planet. They spend their days hiding under the sand, but at night they’re tenacious lovers. Mature adults don’t spend much time on…

African Scientific Academies Say Science Doesn’t Support Anti-Gay Laws

Last week, the Academy of Science of South Africa released a comprehensive review of the research on sexual orientation, hammering home that the grand diversity of human sexuality isn’t something people really choose – it’s all biology. The study, completed in conjunction with the Uganda National Academy of Sciences, examined over 150 recent research papers…

The Female “Sex Pill” Is Here — But Is It Worth the Risks?

Earlier this month, an FDA advisory committee voted to recommend the approval of flibanserin, Sprout Pharmaceutical’s drug for women with persistently low sexual desire. The drug has a number of vocal critics, who believe that its side effects, relative to its modest effect, could be harmful for women. Although many news stories about flibanserin have…

Matt McMullen’s RealDoll proved some people are willing to pay thousands of dollars for a fully customized sex doll. His new project, Realbotix, will try to integrate robotics and artificial intelligence to enhance the experience (and make it far more expensive). Check out the video at the New York Times’ Bits site. Contact the author…

Two Sex Tracking Wearables That Might Actually Make It to Market

Given the explosion of sex advice and tracking apps for smartphones and the popularity of wearable fitness trackers, it was only a matter of time before they were combined into devices for more intimate activities. Perhaps it’s an idea whose time has come: two companies have announced plans to release “sex trackers”. Other companies have…

A Brief History Of Vaginal Cutting During Childbirth

During childbirth, the vagina has to stretch to accommodate a head the size of a grapefruit. This, you may imagine, takes time. So if something goes wrong during labor and delivery has to happen fast, doctors or midwives might speed things along by artificially widening the vaginal opening. With scissors. The procedure is called an…