# Information content in human ejaculate?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-content-in-human-ejaculate/594606>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 30, 2011, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-content-in-human-ejaculate/594606 "2011-08-30T10:43:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-content-in-human-ejaculate/594606/21 "2011-08-30T22:35:03Z")

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That’s why I just said “plumbing”. And proteins don’t contain DNA.

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**Author:** ![isaiahrobinson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@isaiahrobinson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/isaiahrobinson)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-content-in-human-ejaculate/594606/22 "2011-08-30T22:58:10Z")

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> [@Peremensoe](#):
>
> Under normal circumstances, only one sperm’s worth of data is _transferred_, if that. The rest is signal loss.

Right, and even that one sperm only ‘transfers’ its DNA gradually after it reaches and fuses with the ovum, not the second the load gets blown.

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**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-content-in-human-ejaculate/594606/23 "2011-08-30T23:54:13Z")

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> [@si\_blakely](#):
>
> There is a whole lot of redundant information in that “data packet” - all the X/Y chromosomes are the same, and from sampling, all you could get would be a single reconstruction of the original diploid DNA (750Mb).

But each sperm is still unique, right? I will admit that biology isn’t my strong suit but I found this on NewScientist:

> [@](#):
>
> The mathematics are daunting. You have 23 pairs of chromosomes and at the time of sperm (or egg) formation one of each pair is picked. For a model, think of having all the spades and hearts from a deck of cards. If you pick one of each rank at random then the odds you pick the Ace of Spades rather than Hearts is ½ and the same is true for each card.So, the odds that you pick both the Ace and King of Spades is ½ x ½ or ¼.
> 
> For 23 pairs of chromosomes, that means there are 2^23 possible combinations, or 8,388,608. That might seem a daunting set of odds, but in reality it is far, far worse. Before making the pick of each chromosome, the two randomly exchange some of their information. There is no real way of quantifying this step, suffice it to say that there is virtually no possibility that exactly the same exchange will take place again. As a result every sperm contains a unique subset of your genetic information that will never be duplicated. The same has taken place in the formation of the egg, so every zygote formed by fertilization will be unique.
> 
> [http://www.last-word.com/content\_handling/show\_tree/tree\_id/3283.html](http://www.last-word.com/content_handling/show_tree/tree_id/3283.html)

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