And we mean “greatly”: The researchers found that the sperm of triathletes who pedaled more than 186 miles per week was, on average, only 4 percent normally sized and shaped. That’s significantly lower than the 15 to 20 percent in the most fertile non-cyclists, and this low count could make conceiving difficult.

Cyclists, therefore, should consider freezing their sperm before commencing training, according to the BBC:

“Fifteen triathletes with an average age of 33 were asked not to have sex for three days before giving a sperm sample. When the results were compared with their training routines, only cycling – not swimming or running – was linked with sperm quality. All of the men – who had been training for an average of nine times a week for eight years – had less than 10% of normal looking sperm, compared with the 15-20% seen in the most fertile men. In those who managed more than 186 miles a week on their bikes, the proportion of sperm that was the correct size and shape had fallen to 4%, the point at which men may struggle to conceive without fertility treatment.

[Lead researcher Diana Vaamonde] added it was unclear whether sperm quality would improve if men retired from the sport but that after years of wear and tear this was unlikely. “Something which could be done would be to have their sperm frozen but when they start training they do not realise what damage can be done to their sperm.”

The researchers said that casual cycling, such as biking to and from work, likely would not negatively impact a man’s fertility. Let’s face it: Because obesity also can cause infertility, most men (and women) should be worried about spending more time on a bicycle, not less.

Related Content:
Discoblog: Vatican Science: Pope Blames Male Infertility on…the Pill
Discoblog: Heated Car Seats: Too Hot for Sperm
Discoblog: The Unusual Story of a Pregnant, Bearded Man

Image: flickr/ donjd2

• Toxic sofas, after being shipped from China with packets of a harmful mold-inhibitor, caused extreme skin rashes and burns on at least 1,600—and possibly tens of thousands not yet identified—people in England.

• Science education is under assault in Texas.

• In another move of, weirdly, putting animals on birth control, China is putting gerbils on the pill.

• Daddy long-legs are threatened by climate change, a gorilla suffered a seizure and was given an MRI, and a campaign helps endangered species by enlisting clothing brands to save their namesakes: Lacoste to the crocodiles’ rescue!

• Also, we’re doomed.

OvoControl is an oral contraceptive now available for geese and pigeons that was developed by a former pharmaceutical employee and the National Wildlife Research Center in Colorado. The formula for the pill sprouted from a drug that was developed years ago to prevent a fatal illness in chickens, but had the unintended side effect of preventing eggs from hatching. It has now been developed by Innolytics, a California-based company, into a chewy, wheat-based pill for Canadian geese and pigeons. It is currently available for purchase by licensed pest control operators and government agencies.

Meanwhile, GonaCon, a one-time injectable immunocontraceptive, is currently awaiting approval for commercial use on white-tailed deer. Essentially, it is a hormone that keeps the deer’s reproductive cycle from, well, starting. Researchers like it because, unlike most vaccines, it doesn’t require a booster shot, and could prevent pregnancy for up to five years. It has already been injected in 60 elk in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park and researchers say it seems to be working well.

Related Content:
Discoblog: No Kidding: Goat Condom Keeps Herds Chaste
DISCOVER: How Often Do Animals Get STDs?

Image: Flickr / Jim Linwood

There’s plenty of real-life drama to go around in the land of virtual worlds. And given what a major part sex plays in Second Life, it’s not altogether shocking that one activity gaining traction is the chance to give virtual birth [link not in any way safe for work].

Avatars are able to get pregnant the (virtual) old-fashioned way, and can choose the location in which they deliver. The whole process is mighty up close and personal, and results in a somewhat surreal-looking newborn avatar. The details often depart substantially from reality—babies are typically born in a matter of minutes, and sometimes emerge from the womb wearing cute onesies or resembling teddy bears—but the general experience is nonetheless captured. The births have even made waves in the (real) midwife community, with a midwives’ group setting up meetings and performing deliveries within the virtual world as an opportunity for professional education.

Here’s a pretty typical example [Warning: Not really suitable for children, or most adults, for that matter]:

Remember how all the Prozac we’ve been flushing through our systems (and our sewers) was entering the water supply and messing with the fish? Well, a new argument claims that this is precisely what’s going on with men who’re having a little trouble in the fertility department. And just who is making this rather dubious claim? None other than the Pope himself.

According to His Eminence, the demon birth control is finding its way from the urine of loose women into the otherwise-pure systems of unsuspecting males, robbing them of their baby-making mojo.

Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, stated that the pill “has for some years had devastating effects on the environment by releasing tonnes of hormones into nature,” and as a result “[w]e have sufficient evidence to state that a non-negligible cause of male infertility in the West is the environmental pollution caused by the pill.”

Never mind that experts say the hormones in the Pill lose all their “feminine” effects after being metabolized by the (presumably female) Pill taker—this is Pope Science! The Holy See isn’t about to let small things like medical evidence stand in his way. Though, thankfully for mankind, the rest of us feel somewhat differently.

Related:
Disco: Prozac Ocean: Fish Absorb Our Drugs, and Suffer For It
RB: Drugonomics: Cash-Strapped Americans Taking Fewer Prescription Meds
RB: Does the Pill Keep You from Finding a Good Mate?

Image: iStockPhoto

The olor looks like an apron but works like a condom— for goats. Kenyan herdsmen are bringing back this traditional method of livestock contraception— a rectangular piece of cowhide or plastic tied around the belly of the male animal—to control breeding. The olor prevents the animals from mating and doesn’t require constant vigilance on the part of the herdsmen. They would otherwise have to keep the bucks and does in separate herds, which requires twice the number of supervisors to watch over them all.

In recent years, droughts in the region have thinned out pastures. If the goats were allowed to breed unfettered, the females would not be able to adequately care for their young. So this year, local villagers volunteered to follow a “family planning” initiative (which seems like an idea worth spreading, considering the prevalence of animal STDs.)

They decided on the olor because medical alternatives were unavailable. The devices are worn for several months during the breeding season and taken off only after the rains arrive in October or November. Since the villages depend on the goats for survival, the olor plan is taken very seriously. Those who allow their bucks to engage in unprotected philandering have to pay heavy fines.

You might remember the story that broke in early August saying that the Centers for Disease Control had greatly underestimated the number of Americans who become infected with HIV each year. The CDC had said the total was about 40,000; after correcting a mistake in their method of counting, the new estimate was 56,300, a 40 percent increase.

In response to this alarming new number, condom company One made a special delivery to both John McCain’s and Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters: 56,300 condoms. One says the shipments are campaigns’ to do with as they wish, but the company encourages them to donate the condoms to community centers or non-profit organizations.

Is this a publicity stunt for One to garner name recognition for their product? Absolutely. But given the necessity of using condoms to bring down the number of sexually transmitted infections in the U.S. and the world—and the political opposition to doing so—a condom company may as well be pushing the issue.

Somebody has to.

Image: flickr/victoriapeckham

The reason it works, according to U. Melbourne professor Roger Short, is that the estrogen can dramatically thicken the layer of keratin, the protein that’s a key ingredient in hair and nails, covering the skin of the penis. Because of its toughness and insolubility, the keratin layer would presumably provide a natural defense against the virus.

Calling the cream a “natural condom,” Short told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he believed the cream would create “a biological membrane which the virus can’t get through.”

Of course, he and his team have yet to test this keratin theory in actual trials, and there’s always the small matter of a cream doing nothing to prevent pregnancy or other sexually transmitted infections. Still, given that mere calls for abstinence and condom distribution have done little to halt the spread of AIDS, perhaps a quick weekly dousing with estrogen could go a long way.

But an essay in the New York Times explains that STDs are careful to keep the grossness to a sustainable level. After all, pathogens have to make sure potential hosts still want to have sex with the current host—a lesson which syphilis learned after Columbus brought the disease to Europe. In those days, its sores dwarfed those caused by another fearsome disease—called “small pox” to distinguish it from syphilis, the “great pox.” The Times cites a description of syphilis from Ulrich von Hutten, written in 1519:

“Boils that stood out like Acorns, from whence issued such filthy stinking Matter, that whosoever came within the Scent, believed himself infected. The Colour of these was of a dark Green and the very Aspect as shocking as the pain itself, which yet was as if the Sick had laid upon a fire.”

And in Guns Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond explains that “when syphilis was first definitely recorded in Europe in 1495, its pustules often covered the body from the head to the knees, caused flesh to fall from people’s faces, and led to death within a few months.”

This is quite different from the symptoms of the syphilis we know today. In fact, ever since 1546, according to Diamond, the disease has been gentler on the skin. Though still serious—famously responsible for the dementia and death of Al Capone—the symptoms now tend to be less dramatically disgusting.

Looks like the wisdom of natural selection figured out pretty quickly that people with flesh falling off their faces don’t get as many dates as people like Al Capone—that rakish kingpin.

This reminds me of how some iPhone users have complained recently about the feature-not-a-bug that bars you from operating the device while wearing conventional gloves, which could become pretty annoying as the northern hemisphere (where, presumably, most iPhone users spend most of their time) slips into winter, even one blunted by global warming. The Phone Finger people would be better off following the lead of the people who make those Tavo iPod running gloves. Then again, that would probably lose them their funniest-accessory award. The Phone Finger people are geniuses.