Blogs / Discoblog

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.”

(more…)

Here’s something to think about the next time a stranger on the subway is suddenly seized by a sneezing fit:  A new report [subscription required] describes people who experience uncontrollable sneezing when thinking about sex, or after doing the deed itself.  The researchers, who conducted an admittedly unscientific survey by scouring Internet chat rooms, believe that this strange phenomenon is more common than reported.

Harold Maxwell and Mahmood Bhutta of West Middlesex University Hospital in London decided to investigate the issue after one patient, a middle-aged man, complained of uncontrollable fits of sneezing when thinking about sex.  Searching through the medical literature, they could find only one similar case of a man who reported severe sneezing after orgasm.  Perhaps the phenomenon is under-reported because people who suffer from it are embarrassed, they thought.

So the researchers turned to the anonymity of the Web: After a survey of chatrooms, the researchers found 17 people who reported sneezing triggered by sexual thoughts, and three who reported sneezing triggered by orgasm.

(more…)

• Try wrapping your mind around this: Doctors find a tiny foot, thigh, and hand growing in a baby’s brain. Could be a teratoma or a shrunken identical twin.

• Someone skilled with a crochet hook should add a “foot-in-brain” to the The Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art.

• Taking technology to the grave: “It’s comforting to the family to think mom’s playing her iPod or dad’s still got the cell phone that was attached to his ear all the time,” says a funeral planner of the new burial trend.

• When the sun goes down, “sexsomnia” turns a gentle husband into Mr. Hyde.

(more…)

Humans aren’t the only species that use pearly whites to judge the fitness of a mate: Apparently teeth are also important to a certain species of whales. The beaked whales have earned the reputation as the most bizarre whales in the ocean, spending the majority of their lives foraging for food and living in seclusion. For years, scientists have wondered why these strange whales have tusks, especially since it hinders their bite.

It turns out these seeming-unnecessary teeth are important for mating—a discovery that marks the first time scientists have found a secondary sexual characteristic (like antlers) that shaped evolution in a marine mammal.

(more…)

Apparently it’s a pretty close call, according to a recent survey.

Over 2,000 respondents were asked if they would forgo intercourse for two weeks, or surrender Internet privileges for the same amount of time. About half of the women in the survey chose chastity so long as they had the succor of the World Wide Web. This percentage remained consistent across all age ranges, from 18 to 44 years old.

The men surveyed craved action in the bedroom a bit more than World of Warcraft and other online. . . pursuits, though just barely: About four out of 10 males aged 18 to 34 opted for the Internet over sex during the hypothetical two-week time frame.

Other findings of the survey, conducted by the market research firm Harris Interactive and sponsored by (no surprise) the mega tech-vending Intel Corporation, purport to show why for some, the pleasures of the Web beat the pleasures of the bed. (more…)

This just in: Nerdy 16-to-25-year-old male science students are the most likely to be virgins of any of 185 students at the University of Sydney, according to a new study. Australian psychotherapist Stephen Carroll asked students in different departments about their sexual past and their knowledge of Chlamydia. While the male science students had the least amount of sex, female art students reportedly had the most, and also knew the least about the common STD.

What’s going on for all those lonely science majors? They’re spending too much time in the lab, according to Carroll. And given that the majority of science classes are still predominantly male, these deprived men probably aren’t going to find dates in their physics or engineering class. Maybe they should consider enrolling in drawing or painting 101.

Credit: flickr/ motoyzf222

Think your real-life relationships are unsatisfying? Well, consider this before you look for love and companionship in the extra-human realm. A study last month by Australian researchers found that men who have cyber sex had “alarmingly high” rates of depression, stress and anxiety.

The study surveyed 1,325 men from the U.S. and Australia who spent an average of 12 hours a week engaged in Internet sex activities, including porn, online chats, and Web cams. The men were then evaluated for mental health. More than a quarter (27 percent) were moderately to severely depressed, 30 percent had high levels of anxiety, and 35 percent were moderately to severely stressed. The most avid cybersex users were also the most severely depressed.

(more…)

First the dogs, then the infants—it was just a matter of time before the melamine scandal would hit the adult entertainment sector. And then word came last Friday that the U.K.’s Food Standards Agency was issuing an alert against certain “novelty products” —namely, strawberry-flavored body pens and chocolate-flavored “willy spreads,” an edible balm that can be slathered on the penis.

The sex products contained levels of melamine up to 100 times over the legal limit, set at 2.5mg/kg. Melamine is a nitrogen-containing toxin that has recently been found in pet foods, baby formulas, and White Rabbit candies manufactured in China. It’s added to spike the amount of protein that shows up in food tests.

(more…)

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.)

(more…)

We know that women can look at a man’s face and judge whether he has the potential to be a good father. But looks can only go so far—it’s really your genes that matter. In the latest study on love and attraction, a group of scientists found that people in Europe and the U.S. choose partners with dissimilar immune cells, ultimately leading to children with stronger immune systems.

The researchers measured the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC)—a large region of the genome linked to the immune system and body odor—of 30 European American couples, and compared them to 30 Nigerian couples.

(more…)