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Is Your Laptop Cooking Your Testicles?
Velcroman1 writes "Whoever invented the 'laptop' probably didn't worry too much about male reproductive health. Turns out, unsurprisingly, that sitting with a computer on your lap will crank up the temperature of your nether regions, which could affect sperm quality. And there is little you can do about it, according to the authors of a study out today in the journal Fertility and Sterility, short of putting your laptop on a desk. The researchers hooked thermometers to the scrotums of 29 young men (!) who were balancing a laptop on their knees. They found that even with a lap pad under the computer, the men's scrotums overheated quickly. 'Millions and millions of men are using laptops now, especially those in the reproductive age range,' said Dr. Yefim Sheynkin, a urologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, who led the new study."
So how many young men who haven't settled down yet are looking at this more as an opportunity than a problem? :)
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
or you can get an ipad
Well? It does. Now, if only using a cell phone in public sterilized people as well ...
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(but so much more, including game and movie reviews)
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Wait till the Catholic church hears about that. :P
This is good news - we don't need any more people on the planet anyways.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
If only there were a way to get rid of those damaged cells and create new ones.
Or maybe we can evolve some way to correct that ridiculous stopgap measure that we have due to sperm's inability to withstand normal body temperatures.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
"You don't understand," said the man at the return counter. "I said I wanted a computer with a compact DISK burner."
"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire."
Last I heard women on webcam can't get pregnant over the internet.
Period (No pun intended)
Never trust a spiritual leader who cannot dance -- Mr. Miyagi
Do people really use laptops on their laps? The whole keyboard/screen relationship is totally wrong in that configuration.
Self awareness - try it!
At 8+ pounds with a tiny battery, it's not a laptop that's going to be used on laps very often, and when it is, I'd be more worried about blunt crushing damage than heat. Also I don't think you have to spend multi-k USD to get a relatively cool running device if you're willing to live with it being the size and weight of a briefcase. It's the sleek, portable ones that have trouble getting rid of the excess heat, no matter the price.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
oh my GOD , an eye opening article . thanks bro
http://www.preciseforexsignals.com
Is why the test subjects let anyone "hook" a thermometer to their nuts?
Unless she was a big blonde with good hands......
I never have my laptop on my lap and when then just for a very short time. I mean where to go with the mouse? I use the side of my leg as a mousepad it works but it's hardly comfortable and the touchpad is nervebraking after 5 min. Also, I get backpain of the sitting position. But sure that's just me at least I'm happy now I never got used to it.
Haven't they also said that cooler temperatures raises the sperm count as well? This article is not new news, just a... "Oh, well would you look at that, they are stating that water is actually wet and Fire is hot." It just seems to be a little obvious.
Who actually places their notebook computers on their lap? Even at a univsersity where everyone has a notebook I rarely see anyone actually sitting in a proper upright position with a notebook on their laps. You know what else heats up your scrotum too much? Thermal underwear, sitting cross legged, heated car seats...
There was a humorous TED talk on this over 2 years ago following quite a bit of media coverage on the same topic. I believe its also been explored whether internal diaper temperatures may do long term harm the development of the testes.
You'd have to have balls to participate in that experiment.
or you can keep your lap cooker, i mean laptop off your junk on a flat surface.
Mankind evolved naked, so presumably wearing trousers also has an insulating effect on the scrotum and therefore increases testicle temperatures. How come we never hear about the "male health" dangers of getting dressed?
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Despite what may seem obvious, it wasn't so much the heat coming from the computer that was doing it. When you think about it, the hot parts of a laptop are a good distance away from your scrotum (or, at least, they should be if you're not doin' it wrong). The researchers found that it was the leg position used to keep the computer on the lap - i.e., legs closed together - that was the source of the problem. Keeping your legs together while seated was the strongest cause in the rise in scrotal temperature, because you're surrounding your nads with warm parts of the body and covering surface area that would help remove heat. The researchers found that keeping your legs apart would mitigate the problem, but only a little, because then you'd need a large laptop pad bridging the gap, which covers your nethers right back up. Or you could get a humongously wide laptop.
Somehow, I'm thinking that the future of the human race is not imperiled by laptops making men infertile. At least, not in that way.
good news i say, being a mac owner i couldnt afford to raise a child!
It gets your feet warm and saves your future generation!
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
I'd run a paternity test if I were you as I don't think you were the one that put one in the oven.
Sounds like a cheap new form of birth control to me!
Tea and kung-fu. Life is good. Rising Phoenix
... I use a laptop!
I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
Way earlier than that. I remember hearing news of this back when I had a "passively cooled" (read: not really cooled at all) P1 (or was it a P2? I remember it had some pathetic amount of RAM) Thinkpad in the late 90s/early 2000s. That thing would get searing hot, it would literally burn the hairs off my legs and leave red marks where the corners rested on my lap. Upon hearing the news I thought "NO DUH!" but back in my high school days it was as clear as ever that my reproductive prospects were dim so I didn't really care.
Besides those were the glory days of HL1, F-22 Lightning 2/Raptor, Big Red Racing, A10 Tank killer 2, fucking around on Geocities, wasting time in IRC, URL-hacking horribly insecure websites and wasting the whole day with friends (and naive teenage girls with webcams XD ) in Yahoo chat. That and working to be the most badass virtual Pokémon master OF ALL TIME!
My current laptop runs very cool, no heat problems whatsoever. Definitely cooler than driving a car, or say, walking around in the sun.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
If only I'd known about this six years ago!
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
Liquid-cooled laptops with heat exchanger behind the display.
Tell me what the long term effects are.
If you are reading slashdot you probably wont be using them anyway!
Don't know about the rest of you guys, but my laptops have all kept their heat further toward the back and I tend to use it closer to my knees, not my crotch. It's a little hard to type or use the mouse when it's too close to you. Also, I wonder if the temperature raises more from the laptop itself or just from the fact you are holding your legs together around your junk (in order to balance the lappy.)
knocked
So, did you get a boy or a girl?
If you got a girl, then maybe the heat did affect them.
That's if you believe the research that claims that X chromosome sperm is more resilient than Y chromosome sperm.
Uncomfortable? I find it pleasantly warm. However according to one poster this is a good way to get ringworm or similar.
which is totally what she said
No same here, it's hard to get comfortable with a laptop in your lap. Only sitting at a desk or putting it in your lap in a recliner are comfortable.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I type medical transcription on a laptop to make my living. Thankfully I'm past the age where I'd want more children. Bonus would be if I were still attractive enough to catch a little action on the side -- no worries with a low sperm count! ROFL!
Sure, it costs ~$2500
HOLY SHIT that's nearly 5 of my laptops or about the same cost as the internals of my high-end gaming desktop.
For under $600US (with accessories, shipping and a faster hard drive) I got an Asus P50IJ-X2 (Microsoft tax required :-( but is an EXCELLENT laptop) that runs quite cool. The underside near the heatsink can become slightly warm but it generally runs very cool and isn't uncomfortable at all to use.
These days as long as you avoid the especially hot CPUs (I don't think there have been any since the P4 Prescott) you won't have any heat issues.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Now you know why technology is great!
*** Don't be dull.***
... and a laptop, so I will henceforth be using it on my lap at all times.
Michael Coyne
http://turthalion.blogspot.com
Yep.. apple certainly made sure this does not affect the Ipad by making it shut down whenever it gets too hot.
Your nuts are safe with Apple,
"Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes
Or portable computing evolves to something less harmful, or humanity evolves to something that will hate portable computers, at the very genetic level.
Use nothing but my Laptop as IT consultant yet my wife and I are now expecting our third child.
Certainly not recommended for birth control.
The researchers hooked thermometers to the scrotums of 29 young men (!) who were balancing a laptop on their knees. They found that even with a lap pad under the computer, the men's scrotums overheated quickly
Were they viewing porn on the laptop?
But I bought one of those table top doohickeys they sold on infomercials. (The one with the 40L water jug being dropped on it to show its strength), and I put my laptop on that. It works quite well, and the boys remain cool as cucumbers.
Windows is right when it says it is safe to turn off your computer.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
This is also why they say that you shouldn't sit in a hot tub before trying to conceive. Although they didn't say anything about trying to conceive while in a hot tub.
The fact that heat is bad for your sperm count has been well known for decades (at least). It's why your nuts are in a sack hanging outside your body in the first place: to keep them below 98.6F. And it's why doctors have been recommending boxers instead of briefs for couples having difficulty conceiving since before most of the people on /. were conceived. Throw in the not-especially-surprising observation that warm laptops make your lap warm, and you have the obvious conclusion that they'll damage your gametes.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
...make it clear that a male contraceptive pill would have a real success...
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
This is nothing new but what new to me is a funny idea that just came into my mind while reading this.
What if laptop manufacturers takes advantage of this. Say develop a balls-fan/coolant attached via USB, so men never have to worry about this issue. Stupid really but funny.
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Odds are, if it comes from Clevo, it contains very nearly the internals of a high end gaming desktop. That is pretty much their niche.
At one point, they(or one of their very similar close competitors) were actually shipping a laptop whose charging brick had a cooling fan. That was the price you paid if you wanted the fastest-available desktop CPU and top of range mobile GPUs, in SLI, in a mobile(or at least man-portable) package...
Very well, let's see how I'd do some everyday activities with an iPad.
First I SSH and VNC into the home server (after paying any requisite app fees) and...now I have to type with an on-screen keyboard? And it's damn impossible to hit anything accurately with capacitive touch unless I zoom right up. Well this sucks, but moving on.
Next I've been screwing around with my N900's OS and it won't boot, so I have to reimage it. Oh wait the iPad doesn't have a USB port, but that's okay because I can't compile the flasher utility on it anyways. But hey it can't do everything right? I mean how many people do that?
Now I want to reflash a router so I have to wire in. Wait, no ethernet port, damn.
Now I need to read some files from a CD. Oh wait.
Next I need to work on some files stored on a USB flash drive. Nope, can't.
Time to transfer my home server's boot drive to another disk, so I plug....fuck.
Now I'll plug the iPad into the TV and watch some shows served from my home server via samba shares. What there's no samba client? Crap. Okay I use my N900 to remotely set up a uPnP/DLNA media server to serve the videos. It's anime watchin' time....and there are no subtitles now T_T
Maybe if I put the files right on the device and play them with a compatible media player (additional fees may apply). Oh wait the iPad's CPU can't handle HD playback, I'd need to transcode the file manually first. Well I don't feel so bad about the lack of Samba now I guess, because I'd run into the same problem.
Okay so now it's time to put some DRM-free ebooks on this thing, reading ebooks is it's specialty right? I'll just Bluetooth transfer it...oh wait can't do that...I need to use iTunes...great...so I fire up the power-guzzling gaming desktop (as I often have to do now that I've replaced my laptop with an iPad) and install it in a VM, and sync the files across. Well that was a lot of work but it's done now.
So now maybe I'll take this ebook with me outside the house. And I have to carry this bigassed thing in addition to my phone that can do everything it can and much more. But I have a lot more screen space...in terms of inches, in pixels not so much...but that makes up for it, right?
No, this sucks, I want my laptop back.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I understand if you also install WOW your protection doubles.
Is this a problem or a feature?
Getting one of these heaters into the lap of every child in the world might just be our best chance to keep humans for further overpopulating the planet to catastrophe.
Or maybe that's the Internet's plan to extinct us and take over. Phase I, replacing our reproductive drive with porn, is already wildly successful.
--
make install -not war
Where I'm from, it's called "Mountain Oysters" and it's $24.95 a plate.
...laptops are called laptops because you can put them on top of your lap. I never realized that was why they were called that since no human being has ever put one on their lap before this study.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
No. No, I can say with 100% certainty that it is not.
Well, fair enough, if it has high-end gaming parts in it that's probably a decent price.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
.....Well Duh.
Honestly, how is this newsworthy? it has been covered many many times, and is more or less obvious to begin with.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
29 young men (!)
Yeah, I was surprised too. I totally expected them to use young women for the test.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
It seems you cannot start early enough with contraceptives...
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
If ovaries needed to be kept cool, they would be located in a bag between the legs. Sort of like testicles.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
wife: "honey guess what, I am preggers"
husband: "ah HA! I knew you were unfaithful to me because my laptop made me sterile! I been shooting blanks for years"
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
But who the fuck actually uses a computer by balancing it on their lap for any amount of time?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
You can make a laptop run cooler by lowering the voltage to the processor. Your processor must be Pentium M through Core 2 series, the i3, i5, and i7 are not compatible.
RMClock is the tool recommended for doing undervolting.
When you lower the voltage, run something like Prime95 for 5 minutes to verify that the voltage you selected is stable. I've seen its test fail, so I bumped the voltage back up 2 clicks.
Do a google search for 'undervolting rmclock' for more information.
heave more sex.
If heaving is involved, that might be part of your problem. You're probably doing it wrong. :)
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
I was thinking the same thing. Clothing, or a simple blanket would also raise temperatures.
Terror! Be very afraid! Boo!
You know, I can understand not reading the article. I mean, it's clicking on a link, and that's hard. But maybe the summary can enlighten a bit:
They found that even with a lap pad under the computer, the men's scrotums overheated quickly.
The problem is not the heat generated by the laptop. It's the additional insulation provided by putting the laptop on your lap. In the 80s, it was tight pants, in the 90s, it was briefs, in the early 00s, it was laptops. Who knows what we'll be warned about in 2010? Oh, wait...
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
I see this not as a problem but as an oppurtunity to develop a laptop that vibrates also. Might be a bit embarrassing when used on the train though.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
a study was also done which showed that over 90% of those who used a laptop on their lap were more technically savvy and generally considered a threat to all governments now that most of them use computers for everything. The conclusion of the study also found that by slowing down reproduction of these laptop on lap types, the population of these types would start shrinking and eventually most would be concentrated in India and more easily contained. Various computer companies which will remain on named( Microsoft and Intel ) were encouraged to increase power usage and heat production of the laptop devices when it was learned that this reduced reproductive capabilities of the user.
A sub category of the study also showed there was a relationship between reproductivity and mega-elongation of the scrotum. More studies will be carried out to determine the percentage of the geek community with this medical condition and how to address this low handing fruit problem.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
... aluminum heat sink underwear and fly mounted cooling fan. I'll leave the liquid cooling jokes for others.
Prov 9:8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.
Another plus to being gay! Unlimited use of laptops on my lap.
Any guy that is spending that much time with a computer on his lap, is not getting laid anyway.
Tried TFA, so that I could warn my daughters and their insignificant-others. "Sorry", it said, "You must accept cookies". No way, I thought. But that's a bit late for the warnings, or I might have had sons not daughters. "Cookies" indeed.
I'm a heavy laptop user due to work, and never use the laptop pads. Didn't stop me from getting my wife pregnant within 2 months of trying.
"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
Obligatory /. user stereotype joke...
I want that! The thing would even be faster than my desktop. The only thing is that the screen is 16:9 not 16:10 but whatever. I wonder how long it could run off a 12V 7Ah lead-acid battery with a car power adapter.
why is this on Slashdot. laptops have been cooking are nuts sense 1982. and if overheating are nuts had any real effect we would have a entire generation of infertile men by now. but nope a genration where teens are having more kids then ever. and rampant ignorance.
It's quite comfortable for me and is certainly more comfortable than sitting on the floor (with or without laptop). A desk is better, but one is not always available.
No wonder India is handing out free laptops to their students.
Table-ized A.I.
I don't care because I've had a vasectomy. I know for a fact my sperm motility is 0 as I've had it tested. I can use a laptop, wear boxer briefs or bike shorts, and if it fries the tails of a couple of my swimmers no loss. They can't get past the Ti clips and the air gap. If they can, well then our next kid will be able to walk through the fuckin' walls.
Mind you, my primary form of contraception is never having sex. My wife hates to try (her idea of foreplay is, "I think I'm drunk enough. Go.") and I had to give up after years of nothing but bad sex followed by 30 minutes of her crying afterwards. I'm no good for entertainment, no good for reproduction. What good am I?
I don't want to post any more. I'm sad.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Good God...is having trouble conceiving THAT big of a problem for many people?!?!?
Geez, I've spent my entire adult life sweating out late periods, and voting to go for the hot clothes hangers (metaphorically speaking, we used Drs). I mean, you hear this all the time "trouble getting pregnant". I have to think this is an outlier.
I mean, if you are fucking with any regularity, most people I would have to think will get knocked up.
I've always thought the biggest fear was GETTING pregnant.
Am I wrong on this? Is conception that prevalent of a problem?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
This has to be one of the topics that Ballmer privately tweets.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Too hot OR too cold lowers sperm count, which is why your scrotum shrivels in the cold. It's to keep your testicles at the proper temperature.
Free Martian Whores!
So who actually uses a laptop on his/her lap? I never do. It is not a sperm or a skin burn thing - I just never do. Just becuase they have the dumb name of laptop doesn't mean you have to use them on your lap. There are other more suitable surfaces in most environments!
http://www.acetonestudio.com
I had an iPad once. The iDoctor made me wear it for a night after my iSurgery.
Free Martian Whores!
... below 7200RPM y'r nuts are safe!
That explains why both my kids are girls; I used to wear jockey shorts.
Free Martian Whores!
Mind you, my primary form of contraception is never having sex. My wife hates to try (her idea of foreplay is, "I think I'm drunk enough. Go.") and I had to give up after years of nothing but bad sex followed by 30 minutes of her crying afterwards. I'm no good for entertainment, no good for reproduction. What good am I?
I don't want to post any more. I'm sad.
I wish this didn't make me laugh so hard. Now I feel bad. nah, no i don't.
Great. Now I don't have mod points. I would like to mod this awesome.
Now this is real important. PROTECT MY BALLS! Lets fighting love....Lets fighting love....
Not wanting to add to your woes, but if she really hated sex with you so much, either you were doing it wrong or there was something really wrong with her.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
Having spent 20 years on the pill for the same reason (with 2 phantom pregnancies and a hepatic adenoma triggered by the ill for my troubles) I am now finding it extremely difficult to get pregnant. The fertility specialist I am seeing says that 1 in 6 couples experience difficulty conceiving and I know several people who have availed themselves of assisted fertility techniques. I am currently jumping through the bureaucratic hoops to start IVF.
Age is definitely a factor in my case, my husband had a medical condition which meant we put off trying to get pregnant until I was in my late 30's. A womans fertility drops off rapidly after about 35 and catastrophically after 40-ish.
According to an item I heard on the radio recently, the average age for women in the IVF program in Australia is approximately 43. I don't know the quality of their information. To the best of my knowledge, Medicare subsidies for IVF cut out at 46.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
Well, it had been great for long time (we've been together for 15 years), but about about five years ago (after the second kid) it started hurting her after she'd climax so she'd start dreading it and then it just went to hell. It doesn't matter what we do, it hurts. But the crying wasn't from physical pain, it's from how she feels about us.
When I told her I just couldn't take it anymore she told me she felt relief and we haven't even tried since.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
If a guy has something hot on his lap and he doesn't do anything about it, perhaps he shouldn't reproduce.
its far-far worse to have to balance one's ten-year-old Power Macintosh G4/500 DP (Gigabit Ethernet) tower on one's lap; all 30.0 lbs of it with its curvy front base "handle" poking into one's crotch.
With its weight, and the cumbersome shape, the heat passing out through its base is the least of one's worries. Now then, that's why (when a desk is in use) a desktop configuration does have an advantage.
(David Bowman, EVA near HUGE Monolithic Win-PC in orbit around Jupiter) "My God - its full of Malware!"