Scientists thought they had a pretty good handle on how this worked. But according to a new study published January 14 in Science, sperm are actually far more selfish than previously thought. The study was funded by the Massachusettes-based Ohana Biosciences.
Essentially, the new findings suggest natural selection starts on the sperm vs sperm level, long before conception. In other words: Men aren’t just in competition with one another on the evolutionary level — individual sperm are, too. This has profound implications for how we understand genetic inheritance, and how genes influence behavior, development, and even disease.
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In this scenario, Friedman explains “alleles spread through a population quickly because they help sperm compete, but not because they help the entire organism survive overall.”
