DH+sperm+homework

Sperm Article (1) What is a germ cell? (male germ cell and female germ cell) A germ cell is basically a reproductive cell. A male germ cell is a sperm, and a female germ cell is an egg.

(2) Compare the size of a sperm to an egg. Insert a picture here comparing the sizes. The egg is 30 times bigger than the sperm, and the egg is about the size of a period on a page.

(3) Compare the number of eggs produced by human females to the number sperm produced by human males. Females are born with all the eggs they're ever going to have, which is about 1 million. However, males produce at least 4 million sperm per hour in each testicle.

(4) Describe semen. What is the purpose of semen? Semen is the "juice" that the sperm are in. The purpose of the semen is to nourish the sperm.

(5) What can be wrong with sperm? What percentage of sperm are usually normal? Sperm are usually deformed; two heads, no tail, pin head... If a man is lucky, 15% of his sperm will be viable.

(6) Where do sperm develop? Why could a fever disrupt sperm production for months? Sperm develop in the testicles, which are outside of the body. Sperm develop when the temperature is less than 2º of the body temperature. A fever would be bad because it would be too warm for the sperm to be produced.

(7) Describe in detail the three parts of a sperm cell. The first part of the sperm is the head. This is where the 23 chromosomes are kept. The second part is the "neck". In here are the motors that help the sperm move. The last part of the sperm is the tail. The tail propels the sperm towards the egg.

(8) How do the sperm react to being in the female reproductive tract? How do they know where to go? Sperm are unlike other cells in the fact that once they reach the female reproductive tract, they know exactly where to go. The sperm are smart, and they can pick up on things really quickly.

(9) How is the egg only fertilized by one sperm? The egg is only fertilized by one sperm because the egg picks which sperm it wants to be fertilized by. This way, only one is chosen and the rest die out.