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revolverzanbolt t1_isg1zei wrote

Reply to comment by myeff in TIL: Sperms were thought to move by wiggling their tails side-to-side, like eels, for 350 years. But research shows that they roll as they move forward like a spinning top. by vect77

I did not realise sperm were big enough that you could see them with 17th century magnification.

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54B3R_ t1_isgnpib wrote

The microscope was invented and sperm was one of the first things that was put under the microscope

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RealisticDelusions77 t1_isgtmmt wrote

There's an urban legend about a morning biology lab in high school. The teacher had the students scrape their mouths and try to identify cells with a microscope, supposedly there's a few different types in the mouth.

One girl had blown her boyfriend before school and asked the teacher why her cell was different than everyone else's. The teacher looked and awkwardly said "That's a sperm cell."

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shaving99 t1_ishq151 wrote

It's because she had a bracelet that said she was down with that.

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GriffinFlash t1_isgp35s wrote

Wait, the first thought after inventing the microscope was....to jack off to it?

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54B3R_ t1_isgpk80 wrote

>It’s a bright day in 1677, in the city of Delft, and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek is making love to his wife. But moments after he shudders with orgasm, he hurries out of bed to grab his microscope. After all, he’s not just spending time with his wife: he’s running an important scientific experiment at the request of the Royal Society in London.

>Leeuwenhoek has already gained quite a reputation at the Royal Society for his observations of microscopic things, and has—with the Society’s urging—looked at a lot of bodily fluids, including blood, milk, spit, and tears. This time, the plan is to see what’s inside semen.

>He quickly collects his sample from his wife, places some on a pin on the microscope, and lifts the device toward the sun “before six beats of the pulse [have] passed.” When he peers through the lens, he becomes the first person to see living sperm cells.

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awfullotofocelots t1_isgnrt3 wrote

The guy who discovered them was apparently a Dutch amateur who took an interest in lensmaking as a hobby. Possibly had lenses that could magnify 500x.

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