From owner-cellbiol@net.bio.net Tue Jan 07 22:00:00 1997 Path: biosci!UTMDACC.MDA.UTH.TMC.EDU!sung From: sung@UTMDACC.MDA.UTH.TMC.EDU (GongQin Sun) Newsgroups: bionet.cellbiol Subject: Are Sperms Alive? Date: 8 Jan 1997 11:29:49 -0800 Organization: BIOSCI International Newsgroups for Molecular Biology Lines: 14 Sender: daemon@net.bio.net Distribution: world Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: net.bio.net I have a comment in response to Dr. E. Buxbaum's post. 1) I agree with the five characteristics, but think a sperm meets number 4 (self propagation) only partially at best. Sperms can not reproduce themselves first of all. With the help of an egg, only half of the sperm population (those carrying the Y chromosome) can eventually "reproduce" themselves. Am I missing something here? 2) Based on the above arguement, I view sperm as a package of genetic information, not life. The other 4, the form, mobility, composition and metabolism are part of the packaging to ensure the delivery. .