… besides the one obvious use that has been known about for some time, of course. [Image from Wikipedia]

First off, it appears that certain proteins in the semen of fruit flies have the power to do more than just fertilize eggs: they affect the physiological behaviour of the female, making her produce more eggs and become less interested in sex with other males. Possessive husbands the world over can probably see a commercial application for that bit of research.

But here’s another: human sperm can move at a rate of seven inches per hour, which doesn’t sound too fast until you consider how tiny they are. The “flagellum” tail of a sperm is an incredibly efficient biological propulsion system at the microscopic scale, which is one of the reasons researchers are looking to recreate the same systems as powerplants for medical nanobots. [Via SlashDot]