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Fetus Don't Fail Me Now: How Scientists Raise Children

Posted by samzenpus on from the double-blind-man's-bluff dept.

An anonymous reader writes "In the latest column from scientist, humor columnist, and stand-up comedian Adam Ruben, he examines his own umbilicus and considers how being a scientist will affect his approach to raising his only slightly post-fetal child. From the article: 'I don't know how other prospective fathers treat their wives' pregnancies, but I saw it as a science project. It had a protocol, parameters, a timeline, and even the one item that makes funding agencies happy: a deliverable. I found myself poking at my wife's abdomen, asking, "Who's Daddy's little gestating blastocyst? Who's recapitulating phylogeny?"'"

3 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sometimes not at all. by mwvdlee · · Score: 4, Informative

    Knowing this, why would anyone who respects data have children?

    Genital arousal combined with absence of contraceptives.

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  2. Re:If you ever have children, don't make my mistak by Intropy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Agree with all of the above. When I referred to our "little blastocyst" my wife got upset and chided me for not knowing that by three weeks we most certainly had a gastrula.

  3. Re:Don't bring the clipboard to bed... by interkin3tic · · Score: 4, Informative

    An early pioneer at microscopy, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was one of the first ones to look at sperm cells, around 1677. He describes that the samples were obtained fresh, and added the disclaimer "What I investigate is only what, without sinfully defiling myself, remains as a residue after conjugal coitus."

    In other words, in this pioneering study of human sperm, Mrs. van Leeuwenhoek was an uncredited lab assistant in an unusual capacity.