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Why the best dancers make the best mates
THE MOVIESTORE COLLECTION
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Good dancers make the fittest mates Nic Fleming
AS GENERATIONS of men with two left feet have learned to their cost, having the dance floor prowess of Mr Bean is no help in the mating game. To make matters worse for the terminally uncoordinated, it now looks as if women are right to go for men who can strut their stuff like John Travolta or Patrick Swayze – as they are more likely to be strong and to produce healthy offspring. Nadine Hugill and Bernhard Fink of the University of Göttingen in Germany found that men whose dancing was rated as attractive and assertive by women were physically stronger than those whose moves were dismissed as below par. “We already know women use static cues such as facial and bodily characteristics in their assessments of men,” says Fink. “This study shows that dynamic cues such as dancing ability might also be used to assess male quality in terms of strength and dominance – traits which eventually signal status.” The researchers recorded video
Are lab-grown human sperm the real thing? CALLS for more proof greeted claims that human sperm have been created in the lab for the first time. If further tests show that the labgrown sperm are identical to the natural kind, they might be helpful in understanding male infertility. Karim Nayernia of the University of Newcastle, UK, and his colleagues treated male embryonic stem cells
clips of 40 heterosexual male students dancing to the drum track of the Robbie Williams song Let Me Entertain You. Participants wore white overalls, and a blurring filter was used to disguise information about their clothing, as well as face and body shape. Hand grip strength was measured using a dynamometer. Twenty-five female students viewed the muted videos and rated the attractiveness of the dancers, while another 25 rated their assertiveness. Even after controlling for body weight, there were strong correlations between strength scores and both perceived attractiveness and assertiveness (Personality and Individual Differences, DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2009.04.009). Fink had already discovered that men who were exposed to higher levels of testosterone in the womb, as indicated by the relative lengths of their index and ring fingers, were rated as more attractive, dominant and masculine by women who watched clips of them dancing. Research also shows that women generally find very masculine facial features more attractive,
(ESCs) with a range of substances, which converted them first into germline stem cells and then into spermatogonial stem cells. These divided to produce “haploid” spermatocytes with just 23 chromosomes, which went on to mature into sperm (Stem Cells and Development, DOI: 10.1089/ scd.2009.0063). Independent researchers are demanding more evidence. “Although they find that some of the sperm cells have tails and can swim, this is not evidence of normality,” says Robin Lovell-Badge, who studies sperm
–Will you have my babies?–
particularly around ovulation. “This would make sense from an evolutionary perspective. Being able to select high-quality males on the basis of visual cues is likely to have promoted certain females through sexual selection,” says Gayle Brewer, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Central
Lancashire, in Preston, UK. However, all is not lost for those not blessed with twinkle toes. “If you are unable to compete, change the game. Perhaps stay away from the dance floor and show your qualities in other ways by buying a woman a drink or showing how attentive and engaging you are,” says Brewer. ■
formation at the UK National Institute for Medical Research in London. Indeed, all seven mouse pups produced by Nayernia’s team in 2006 after fusing normal eggs with mouse sperm created in the lab died within five months. This was because chemical caps called methyl groups had blocked vital genes in the sperm. Nayernia is now carrying out tests to see if the same thing
happened with the human sperm. Nayernia has solved the problem in mice by putting spermatogonial cells into mouse testes before they mature. “The sperm then have a normal shape and normal methylation patterns,” he says. For humans, he claims to have developed “artificial testes” to do the same job. A more distant possibility is the creation of sperm from a woman’s cells, allowing a lesbian couple to have a child. Nayernia produced spermatogonial stem cells from female ESCs but they lacked genes needed to mature. Andy Coghlan ■
“They divided to produce ‘haploid’ spermatocytes with 23 chromosomes that matured into sperm”
11 July 2009 | NewScientist | 13
For daily news stories, visit www.NewScientist.com/news
Good dancers make the fittest mates Nic Fleming
AS GENERATIONS of men with two left feet have learned to their cost, having the dance floor prowess of Mr Bean is no help in the mating game. To make matters worse for the terminally uncoordinated, it now looks as if women are right to go for men who can strut their stuff like John Travolta or Patrick Swayze – as they are more likely to be strong and to produce healthy offspring. Nadine Hugill and Bernhard Fink of the University of Göttingen in Germany found that men whose dancing was rated as attractive and assertive by women were physically stronger than those whose moves were dismissed as below par. “We already know women use static cues such as facial and bodily characteristics in their assessments of men,” says Fink. “This study shows that dynamic cues such as dancing ability might also be used to assess male quality in terms of strength and dominance – traits which eventually signal status.” The researchers recorded video
Are lab-grown human sperm the real thing? CALLS for more proof greeted claims that human sperm have been created in the lab for the first time. If further tests show that the labgrown sperm are identical to the natural kind, they might be helpful in understanding male infertility. Karim Nayernia of the University of Newcastle, UK, and his colleagues treated male embryonic stem cells
clips of 40 heterosexual male students dancing to the drum track of the Robbie Williams song Let Me Entertain You. Participants wore white overalls, and a blurring filter was used to disguise information about their clothing, as well as face and body shape. Hand grip strength was measured using a dynamometer. Twenty-five female students viewed the muted videos and rated the attractiveness of the dancers, while another 25 rated their assertiveness. Even after controlling for body weight, there were strong correlations between strength scores and both perceived attractiveness and assertiveness (Personality and Individual Differences, DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2009.04.009). Fink had already discovered that men who were exposed to higher levels of testosterone in the womb, as indicated by the relative lengths of their index and ring fingers, were rated as more attractive, dominant and masculine by women who watched clips of them dancing. Research also shows that women generally find very masculine facial features more attractive,
(ESCs) with a range of substances, which converted them first into germline stem cells and then into spermatogonial stem cells. These divided to produce “haploid” spermatocytes with just 23 chromosomes, which went on to mature into sperm (Stem Cells and Development, DOI: 10.1089/ scd.2009.0063). Independent researchers are demanding more evidence. “Although they find that some of the sperm cells have tails and can swim, this is not evidence of normality,” says Robin Lovell-Badge, who studies sperm
–Will you have my babies?–
particularly around ovulation. “This would make sense from an evolutionary perspective. Being able to select high-quality males on the basis of visual cues is likely to have promoted certain females through sexual selection,” says Gayle Brewer, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Central
Lancashire, in Preston, UK. However, all is not lost for those not blessed with twinkle toes. “If you are unable to compete, change the game. Perhaps stay away from the dance floor and show your qualities in other ways by buying a woman a drink or showing how attentive and engaging you are,” says Brewer. ■
formation at the UK National Institute for Medical Research in London. Indeed, all seven mouse pups produced by Nayernia’s team in 2006 after fusing normal eggs with mouse sperm created in the lab died within five months. This was because chemical caps called methyl groups had blocked vital genes in the sperm. Nayernia is now carrying out tests to see if the same thing
happened with the human sperm. Nayernia has solved the problem in mice by putting spermatogonial cells into mouse testes before they mature. “The sperm then have a normal shape and normal methylation patterns,” he says. For humans, he claims to have developed “artificial testes” to do the same job. A more distant possibility is the creation of sperm from a woman’s cells, allowing a lesbian couple to have a child. Nayernia produced spermatogonial stem cells from female ESCs but they lacked genes needed to mature. Andy Coghlan ■
“They divided to produce ‘haploid’ spermatocytes with 23 chromosomes that matured into sperm”
11 July 2009 | NewScientist | 13