Mouse sperm survive space to fertilize eggs

mouse pups

SPACE PUPS  Mice born from sperm that took a nine-month trip to space were healthy despite the gametes being exposed to massive amounts of solar radiation.

S. Wakayama et al/PNAS 2017

Mouse sperm could win awards for resilience. Sperm freeze-dried and sent into space for months of exposure to high levels of solar radiation later produced healthy babies, researchers report online May 22 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.