Are Sperm Alive?

[zeropoint]

>   lesley at UNIXG.UBC.CA (Lesley Weston) writes:
>  If we were ferns, then sperm and ova would be our haploid prothallus 
>  stage: an entirely different creature from the diploid sporophyte generation.
>   But we're not ferns, so I guess sperm are just one form of differentiated 
>  cells among many.
>  Lesley.

Is a spark a fire?

The dna in the sperm is potentiated in a manner unlike that of the parcel of any other aggregate of 
the genome in other cells.  The determination of the macro status of the sperm dna with respect to 
its liberty of function is a more interesting orientation to the identification of the salient qualities of 
the sperm or the ovum.   

At the base of the flagella, there are the centrioles which do impart motion to the sperm.  The 
significance of this is broad, but motion is sometimes considered a sign of life.  To determine the 
irritibility of sperm would go far to determining the quality or degree of its livilihood,  I would say it 
is alive, but that it is not a life.

Z.A.P., Zero Air Pollution, a partnership
Berkeley California
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