These Babies Are the First to be Born After Conceived by Robot
What do PlayStation 5 and a team of scientists have in common? A robotic sperm injector that can be operated via a PlayStation controller was created by a Spanish company. It was successfully employed by the researchers to fertilize human eggs, leading to the eventual delivery of two healthy children. As strange as that might sound, well, you’ll be left in awe when you’ll hear about the results!
According to MIT Technology Review, one of the engineers developing the first insemination robot had no background in reproductive science. Apparently, they had an interest in PlayStation 5.
How did they do it?
I was calm, in that exact moment, I thought, ‘It’s just one more experiment,’ said Eduard Alba, the PlayStation controller-wielding student engineer at Overture Life.
You can mark his words as soon as this research gets more recognition, and people will start relying on robots to conceive their babies.
The student engineer used the controller to guide a small, automated in-vitro fertilization (IVF) needle to repeatedly inject single sperm cells into human eggs. And it looks that the unique method was genuinely successful. Robotic fertilization resulted in the recent birth of two baby girls. Quite impressive, isn’t it?!
There’s more!
Each tries at pregnancy in the US costs about $20,000 due to how delicate and labor-intensive the current IVF procedure is, according to researchers. So, this is where startups like Overture and probably more there truly shine because they can help with that. By gradually automating portions of the procedure, the processes will be far less expensive and more accessible.
What are your thoughts on robots when it comes to conceiving babies?
The greatest amount of money has been received so far for Overture ($37 million), and among its investors is Susan Wojcicki, the former CEO of YouTube. The experts claim that it just represents a small step toward fully automating the procedure.
Tiesha loves to share her passion for everything that’s beautiful in this world. Apart from writing on her beauty blog and running her own beauty channel on Youtube, she also enjoys traveling and photography. Tiesha covers various stories on the website.
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