Sperm Cell Hits Embryonic Son, NASA Puzzled

Sperm cell crashes into embryonic son  (artist's conception)

June 16, 2013 - Scientists at NASA were stunned when an "unbelievably fast" sperm cell crashed into an embryonic son at 01:30 UTC this morning. Nobody at NASA anticipated the arrival of the sperm cell, which occurred during an office party at the space agency's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) Project at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

"None of our monitoring satellites were able to see this coming," said Dr. Roger Pater of SORCE. "We know where it came from, and we have good reason to believe that this was a Y chromosome-bearing sperm cell. If that's the case, then the result will be an embryo with XY chromosomes. In other words, a boy."

Dr. Pater stressed that this is only speculation at this point. "We won't know for six weeks into the gestation, as the fetus. It's about then that we'll see sexually specific male or female characteristics." Pater added that this is not one of NASA's areas of expertise. "I'm just a physicist," he said, "not a real doctor."

The unexpected sperm cell hit an egg contained within a female employee of NASA. Witnesses at the party say that she and her husband snuck off to an empty office in another part of the building where the office party was taking place. "They were gone for about 45 minutes," said one of the party attendees. "That's long enough to, well, you know. So like, this wasn't totally unexpected if you think about it."

Happy Fathers Day.