- Scientists found that the sperm’s tails deform to push the agent through the fluid
- The flexibility of the tails must consume more energy and hinder movement
- Read more: Scientists share more evidence that pollution is harmful to sperm
Scientists say they have discovered that the way sperm swim defies a law of physics.
Researchers at Kyoto University found that the sperm’s flagellum, or tail, propels agents forward by changing their shape to interact with the fluid.
Sperm do not elicit an equal and opposite reaction from their surrounding environment. Experts say that this method of movement defies Newton’s law of motion, which states that there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The flexibility of the flagella also suggests that there should be no movement at all, but instead the sperm flapping their tails without releasing much energy into their surroundings.
Researchers at Kyoto University found that the sperm’s flagellum, or tail, propels agents forward by changing their shape to interact with the fluid.
The team used human sperm cells and algae in the research because they both have flagella that help them propel through the fluid. new world Reports.
These tails are flexible and can deform and return to their original shape, which should not be able to push swimming agents through the surrounding fluid that acts as an obstacle.
The algae and sperm cells were analyzed under a microscope, where the researcher found that the pair used their tails to move by making Wave-like movements push and pull them through the surroundings of the liquid.
In the case of Newton’s law of motion, movements must eventually slow down the swimmers’ movement.
Flapping a sperm’s tail is supposed to lose energy because it deforms against its surrounding environment, but when flapping, flagella avoid an equal and opposite reaction that conserves energy.
By bending in small ways in response to the application of fluid, flagella manage to avoid an equal and opposite reaction, thus conserving their owner’s energy.
Researchers call this ability “individual resilience.”
“Singular elasticity is not a general term for activity in solids, but is a well-defined physical mechanism that generates active forces in solids or in other systems where generalized elasticity can be defined without using an elastic potential,” according to a study published by Leiden University, which was not involved in the research.