Here's a study that's right up my editor's alley, and since it has to do with food, too, I'm quickly intercepting it. (That's what he gets for being busy with that whole school & work thing...)Turns out that the more colorful a guy is, the better his seed.
In birds, anyway, but hey -- like any guy who's being hammered nightly at home by a baby-craving mama-wannabe knows, whatever works!
Seriously, though, we're always taking our cues from mice studies... how many times do I see headlines touting the Next Big Thing for Male Fertility Treatment when, lo and behold, it's a study that hasn't gotten beyond furry four-footed critters? So how about them feathered friends?
This blogpost by new favorite evolutionary biologist, grrlscientist (you must love the title she's given her post: "Colorful Tits Produce Speedier Sperm"), talks about a just-published study of little European birds who, it turns out, ate a lot of carotenoids. The result was more gloriously-colored plumage and -- taDAH -- less stressed-out sperm.
You do already know that a stressed-out sperm is a relatively useless cell, right? Not bad, exactly, but in terms of what it's supposed to be accomplishing, not so good.
Free radicals, highly chemically reactive molecules that oxidize (zap) DNA in living cells, are apparently the key here. Carotenoids just eat them up.
Even if you're not a bird fan, into evolutionary biology, or otherwise a science geek, you'll enjoy this article on Living the Scientific Life about the study published in Ecology Letters.
{And in case you're worried or just wondering about the tone or content of this blogpost, it's just a little cross-blog promotion, in light of my most recent new baby...}
Oh, one final note, excerpted from grrlscientist's blogpost:
(Humans who eat excessive amounts of carotenoid-containing foods, such as carrots, likewise deposit carotenoids into their integument, rendering their skin a delightful shade of orange.)
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