NH+Sperm+Article

=Sperm Article= //Germ cells are the sex cells, sperm for men and eggs for women.//
 * (1) What is a germ cell? (male germ cell and female germ cell)**

//A sperm is ab 5 microns thick. An egg is ab 30 times bigger than a sperm.//
 * (2) Compare the size of a sperm to an egg. Insert a picture here comparing the sizes.**

//Women are born with all the eggs they will ever produce. They have about 1 million eggs but only about 500 will become ripe and ready for fertilization. Men on the other hand create sperm constantly. They produce about 4 million per hour.//
 * (3) Compare the number of eggs produced by human females to the number sperm produced by human males.**

//Semen is a mixture of sugars and citric acids that help to nurture the sperm and keep them alive so that they can live long enough to fertilize an egg.//
 * (4) Describe semen. What is the purpose of semen?**

//Sperm can be misshaped so that it has a pinhead, two heads, no tail or it just doesn't move at all. Normally only about 15% of sperm are normal.//
 * (5) What can be wrong with sperm? What percentage of sperm are usually normal?**

//Sperm develop in the testes. They are best formed at a temperature a few degrees below body temperature so a fever would stop production.//
 * (6) Where do sperm develop? Why could a fever disrupt sperm production for months?**

//There is a sperm head where all of the 23 chromosomes are stored. At the tip of the head, there is the acrosome which contains enzymes that help the sperm to penetrate the egg for fertilization. On the other side of the head is the midpiece which is filled with mitochondria that produce the energy needed to move the tail. The tail is composed of 11 filaments that thrash around to propel the sperm at 1/12 " per minute.//
 * (7) Describe in detail the three parts of a sperm cell.**

//When they get into the female reproductive tract, the female sends off chemical signals that the sperm follow to find the egg.//
 * (8) How do the sperm react to being in the female reproductive tract? How do they know where to go?**

//The plasma membrane of the egg changes after it has been fertilized so that no more sperm can penetrate it.//
 * (9) How is the egg only fertilized by one sperm?**