Beyond the genome : where do we go from here?.

Steve Jones interviews scientists about the 'egg and sperm' race. Claire Grant in her work on drosophila discovers the evolutionary effects of females preferring particular male characteristics such as a wide eye-span. A female mated with two males can somehow select which sperm will fertilize her egg. Abalones, which release millions of sperm into the sea, are studied by Victor Vecchia and Zhi Hang Yang. These sperm have the most rapidly evolving gene ever found. Drosophila research by Jim Cummings focuses on a species where the sperm is 20 times longer than the fly itself. Peter Satovski considers mitochondria in methods used to inject sperm directly into eggs in human fertility clinics, and speculates on possible dangers.