Mercuryday Links: Science of Sex

August 30th, 2007

Of course, these links are purely in the interest of science, and not at all about skeezing traffic off the masturbating zombies of the Internet who are googling for science-related sexual fetishes.

Cicero, in his Treatises on Friendship and Old Age, talks about how an old man’s mind is stronger because it is unclouded by lust, unlike a younger man, who is ruled by his physical urges.Obviously he hadn’t read last week’s study, which found that old people are doing the nasty.Of course, this is nothing new:

A Roper Starch poll of 1,292 people in the United States aged 60 and above found that 74% of the men and 70% of the women who had remained sexually active said that they were as satisfied or more satisfied with sex than they were in their 40s (Leary, 1998)

The female’s vagina looses its elasticity and shrinks as she ages, and men require more time to become arouse; therefore, more foreplay is required and there is more friction during intercourse. Plus experience lends to the pleasure as well (Rathus, 2000)

Embryonic stem cells, which are a byproduct of sex (or invitro fertilization), have successfully been used by California-based biotechnology company to heal the hearts of rats, after suffering medically-induced heart attacks. The next step is to get the process working in sheep, with the hope for human clinical trials in two years.

Ex-Astronaut, Lisa Nowak, intend to use an insanity defense at her trial next month, where she is “accused of assaulting and trying to kidnap her rival in a love triangle.” I don’t think she’ll have any trouble convincing anyone of that. (Hat tip to the Guardian, NYT, and any other news source that managed to cover this development without mentioning the diapers.)Oh, the days of our lives… Although NASA has denied the urban legend that it conducted experiments into it, we can still speculate about the many complications sex in space would entail.

Keeping with the science and sex theme, check out Jennifer Chowdhury’s Ph.D thesis project, an intimate video game controlled with sensors in underwear titled Intimate Controllers

And just for good measure: Nintendo Power, Safe Sex is the Best!

Leary, W.E. (1998, September 29). Older people enjoy sex, survey says. The New York Times, p. F8.Rathus, Nevid, Fichner-Rathus (2000). Human Sexuality in a World of Diversity, p. 439-442. Pearson Education Company.