# Which is more "ALIVE", an egg or a sperm? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 21, 2009, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354 "2009-11-21T00:44:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Super\_Kapowzler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Super\_Kapowzler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Kapowzler)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/1 "2009-11-21T00:44:39Z")
Sure. Women have always been “the vessels” of life or the “bringers/carriers of life” and the whole gestation thing for 9 months, but lets talk facts. Both male and female of our species create living cells within our bodies, red-blood, T’s, whites etc., and some kind of worm that lives at the base of our eyelashes. But when we come down to the chromosomes and their method of travel and intent, does mobility mean more “Alive” than immobile? From what I understand, the egg is a “living” organsim, I think it “eats” as it rolls down through the Fallopian(sp)-tubes, but has no compuncture or motivation to get “somewhere” as fast as it can. Sperms are shaken-about and stirred, and cooked up in a batch of sugar in the testies, and somehow everyone of them know what they are there for. Upon “deployment” the sperm soldiers take off, without a map, and swim upstream like salmon, or “weener dogs” racing with smiles on their faces. It can’t be as simple as the Sperm and Egg are essentially the same, except eggs can’t swim like a sea-otter, gettin’ all frolicky and smart-assy. Sperms have smiles. Sperms know where they are going. " So which one is more “alive”? A simple one-cell thing with chromosomes, that sits around, acting like a huge bulls-eye, or a simple one-cell thing with chromosomes that acts like micheal phelps/angus young/chuck yeager/admiral bird? Eggs live longer than sperms, I think, but they live at home. If you think about it, if sperms lacked their flagella, or ability to swim, the act of copulation would result in a deposit of fluid in the “place where the egg is at”, and since the egg is rolling downhill without direction, it will land in the “tailess chromosomal-fuild” like a fly on flypaper, sooner or later. Is there a “message”, inside the brain of the egg, that says: “Hold Position” in the same way a sperm is programmed to “slam at everything in sight”? I relate to the desire, ability, and “instinct” to race upstream, with a smile on my face like a weenerdog. Peace. ---
**Author:** ![EmAnJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/2 "2009-11-21T00:57:50Z")
Actually, if sperm couldn’t swim, it would be near impossible for conception to occur. Sperm join the egg right up near or in the fallopian tubes (hence the occurrence of ectopic pregnancies, where implantation happens in the tubes). If the egg gets past the end of the tubes without being fertilized, it starts to die. Eggs, once they burst from the follicle (home) live for about 12 hours. It takes almost that long to get to the end of the fallopian tubes. Otherwise, I guess if I had to pick one, I would say sperm. They are active, and I guess to me, activity means more ‘alive’. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/3 "2009-11-21T22:49:27Z")
I don’t think activity means alive. Mousetraps and sodium and dust devils are dead dead dead. Eggs and sperm have the same programming capacity, but an egg has much more living tissue. Also, the fertile humans that create eggs put a month’s worth of creation into each one, whereas the fertile humans that create sperm are generating them at an average rate something like 10,000 per second. On average, eggs must have something like a half percent chance of getting to add a hundred or two hundred pounds and walk around for the better part of a century, and something like a quarter percent chance of suckling their own half-copies. Sperm, on the other hand, get something a bit over one chance in 10,000,000,000,000 to walk around and cruise the web. So, I go with the egg. Actually, even if they don’t have much of a future, in other species eggs make much more substantial and lifegiving of a meal, too. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/4 "2009-11-21T23:15:28Z")
Sperm are more active. They do more than just seek out eggs I’ve read; some of them form themselves into tangles in order to block any potential sperm from a later man. And others are hunter-killers that cruise around “looking” for any sperm from another man and attack them ( boring in to kill them, rather like they would with the egg but for the opposite purpose ). But I’d call the egg “more alive” for the simple reason that there’s so much more of it. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2009, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/5 "2009-11-21T23:17:41Z")
I vote for egg. It comes with more stuff, whereas sperm is stuff with more cum. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/6 "2009-11-22T00:19:21Z")
Nothing is nearly so alive as those eyelash worms. It’s hardly worth arguing about second place. ---
**Author:** ![kimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@kimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kimera)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/7 "2009-11-22T02:29:27Z")
The egg doesn’t just sit there passively. It draws the sperm towards it and sucks in the sperm that is chosen for the fateful task. It also repels other sperm that it doesn’t want for whatever reason. The traditional view of the sperm as active and seeking to penetrate a docile, passive egg is not based on science, but based on gendered notions of how each gender should behave. Emily Martin wrote an excellent paper on this subject. [Link](http://www.cathnewsusa.com/article.aspx?aeid=16524) ---
**Author:** ![kimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@kimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kimera)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/8 "2009-11-22T02:39:03Z")
Just after I posted, I found a better [link](http://discovermagazine.com/1992/jun/theaggressiveegg55): > [@](#): > > From the early 1970s on, studies of the sperm and eggs of many species have revealed that molecules released by the egg are critical to guiding and activating the sperm–that is, triggering the sperm to release proteins that help it adhere to the egg. In fact, the egg might just as well be called eager as passive. > > …By 1986 Martin had begun hanging out with a team of researchers at Johns Hopkins who were observing sperm mobility in hopes of coming up with a strategy for a new contraceptive. They had started the year before with a simple experiment–measuring human sperm’s ability to escape and swim away from a tiny suction pipet placed against the side of the sperm cell’s head. To the team’s great surprise, the sperm turned out to be feeble swimmers; their heads thrashed from side to side ten times more vigorously than their bodies pushed forward. It makes sense, says Martin. The last thing you’d want a sperm to be is a highly effective burrower, because it would end up burrowing into the first obstacle it encountered. You want a sperm that’s good at getting away from things. > > The team went on to determine that the sperm tries to pull its getaway act even on the egg itself, but is held down against its struggles by molecules on the surface of the egg that hook together with counterparts on the sperm’s surface, fastening the sperm until the egg can absorb it. Yet even after having revealed the sperm to be an escape artist and the egg to be a chemically active sperm catcher, even after discussing the egg’s role in tethering the sperm, the research team continued for another three years to describe the sperm’s role as actively penetrating the egg. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/9 "2009-11-22T04:25:21Z")
> [@](#): > > The team went on to determine that the sperm tries to pull its getaway act even on the egg itself, but is held down against its struggles by molecules on the surface of the egg that hook together with counterparts on the sperm’s surface, fastening the sperm until the egg can absorb it. Thus changing the image of the egg from passive object of the seeking sperm, to a Lovecraftian horror that calls the sperm in with a chemical siren song, latches on to them and sucks them down. 😃 Sperm: “It’s got me! It’s got me! AIEEEE!!!” _Glub_ _Glub_ **gurgle…** ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/10 "2009-11-22T05:41:23Z")
Well, which one is more likely to be able to create life on its own? I’m gonna go with the [Egg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis#Asexual_reproduction)on this one. Until the sperm start turning into little creatures on their own in some animals, the Egg will win hands down. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/11 "2009-11-22T05:44:31Z")
Who the hell taught you guys this crap? The Stork is more alive. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/12 "2009-11-22T05:47:23Z")
Egg on your face - minor embarrassment. Sperm on your face - well, that depends on the individual but I know I wouldn’t like it. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/13 "2009-11-22T06:13:38Z")
I’m going with the sperm. The egg just has to lie back and get screwed, and it doesn’t even have to think of England. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/14 "2009-11-22T06:42:23Z")
Well the egg certainly wins for size. Slide the bar at the bottom of this picture for an idea of relative size. [http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/](http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/) ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/15 "2009-11-22T08:26:18Z")
My, what a big eggg you have, Gasp! Still, it’s mostly cytoplasm… the majority water molecules. ---
**Author:** ![Sue\_Duhnym](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@Sue\_Duhnym](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sue_Duhnym)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/16 "2009-11-22T18:46:05Z")
Dammit. I KNEW that I shouldn’t have Googled eyelash worms. I knew it but I did it anyway. GAAAAHHHH! ---
**Author:** ![Taenia\_spp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@Taenia\_spp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taenia_spp)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/17 "2009-11-22T23:00:52Z")
This question seems pretty meaningless to me. It reminds me of Steven Hawking’s anecdote, when asked 'What came before the Big Bang?" he responded with an analogy ‘What is South of the South Pole?’ Each of these questions is pretty devoid of meaning. Neither egg nor sperm are ‘alive’ in any sense because they cannot perpetuate themselves independently into a new egg or sperm. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/18 "2009-11-22T23:26:05Z")
> [@Taenia\_spp](#): > > Neither egg nor sperm are ‘alive’ in any sense because they cannot perpetuate themselves independently into a new egg or sperm. Neither can red blood cells. Or a sterile person or animal for that matter. Reproduction is a common feature of life, but not the defining one. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/19 "2009-11-23T00:13:22Z")
> [@Super\_Kapowzler](#): > > Sure. Women have always been “the vessels” of life or the “bringers/carriers of life” and the whole gestation thing for 9 months, but lets talk facts. Carriers, yes. Bringers, not so much, at least before people figured out that men didn’t just put babies into women’s wombs for them to incubate. Not sure if this was a universal assumption, though. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354/20 "2009-11-23T00:31:15Z")
> [@ghardester](#): > > Well the egg certainly wins for size. Slide the bar at the bottom of this picture for an idea of relative size. > > [http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/](http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/) Is it the only cell from the human body that can be seen with a naked eye? I was taught in bio that it’s about this big: . I still have to go with sperm seeming more alive, though. It’s the wriggling. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-more-alive-an-egg-or-a-sperm/518354.md?page=2)