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posted by martyb on Monday May 29 2017, @05:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the miSPERforMance dept.

Researchers at U.C. Berkeley have found a birth control that is hormone free, fully natural, resulted in no known side effects so far, is harmless to eggs and sperm, could be used both in the long- and short-term, and it can be used either before or after conception, from ancient Chinese folk medicine. "Because these two plant compounds block fertilization at very, very low concentrations -- about 10 times lower than levels of levonorgestrel in Plan B -- they could be a new generation of emergency contraceptive we nicknamed 'molecular condoms,'" team leader Polina Lishko, an assistant professor of molecular and cell biology, said in a press release.

The active compounds are pregnenolone sulfate — and the two plant-derived inhibitors pristimerin and lupeol. According to the publication.

And they work by blocking ABHD2 that signals to sperms to move faster. However these compounds hit a target that is important for many cell types in the body. So these compounds are no "magic bullet" and a better comparison is that of carpet bombing.

The chemicals they studied are supposedly extracted from mangoes and dandelion roots.

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1700367114 — a full pre-print is available.


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  • (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @05:48PM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @05:48PM (#517240)

    If a sperm is wasted, God gets quite irate.

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @05:55PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @05:55PM (#517242)

      And that's why you should suck your own cock so your sperm never leaves your body.

      • (Score: 2) by edIII on Monday May 29 2017, @09:58PM (2 children)

        by edIII (791) on Monday May 29 2017, @09:58PM (#517332)

        Still a murderer, now there are just no survivors :)

        I find it odd to term it waste, when the same God designed procreation to literally waste 99.999% of the "bullets". You have sex, with a woman, deposit a load, and if you are lucky, 2 or 3 of them might survive to become zygotes. Most of the time if there is a survivor, it's the fittest one and just that one. Even under the best of circumstances, we are all murderers millions of times over. The logic is truly amusing and twisted. Is it just manslaughter if I prematurely ejaculate and didn't make it to the pussy? Am I cleared of the charges because of proximity, intentions, or what? If God did care at all, then wouldn't he have more intelligently designed us?

        By that same logic, all women are murderers with blood on their hands every 28 days because they didn't get pregnant. It's not headaches, but homicide.

        --
        Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @09:19AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @09:19AM (#517554)

          You have sex, with a woman, deposit a load, and if you are lucky

          At that point, I would already consider myself lucky.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @05:06PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @05:06PM (#517758)

            At which point exactly?

            1. You have sex,
            2. with a woman,
            3. deposit a load

            SCNR :-)

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @10:19PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @10:19PM (#517342)

      Every sperm is needed
      In your neighbourhood.

      • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday May 29 2017, @11:07PM (1 child)

        by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Monday May 29 2017, @11:07PM (#517362) Journal

        Hindu, Taoist, Mormon,
        Spill theirs just anywhere,
        But God loves those who treat their
        Semen with more care.

        Let the Pagan spill theirs
        O'er mountain, hill, and plain.
        God shall strike them down for
        Each sperm that's spilt in vain.

        [For those who don't know where this thread is coming (ahem) from, you must watch this [youtube.com].]

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 30 2017, @04:44PM (1 child)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 30 2017, @04:44PM (#517741) Journal

      If a sperm is wasted, God gets quite irate.

      Then why did God create wet dreams?

      Why does an average ejaculate have hundreds of millions of sperm, while only one of them even potentially fertilizes an egg?

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @05:09PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @05:09PM (#517760)

        Maybe God likes to be irate. :-)

  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 29 2017, @06:28PM (2 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday May 29 2017, @06:28PM (#517254) Journal

    Interesting choice of words. So, you took her home, with carpet burns on her buttocks, and you call it "carpet bombing"? Yeah, her daddy will understand, LMAO!!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @06:55PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @06:55PM (#517268)

      Why is daddy looking at daughter's buttocks, incest dad?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @07:01PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @07:01PM (#517274)

      with carpet burns on her buttocks, and you call it "carpet bombing"? Yeah, her daddy will understand, LMAO!!

      Don't you mean LMCBO?

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday May 29 2017, @06:36PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday May 29 2017, @06:36PM (#517258) Journal

    However these compounds hit a target that is important for many cell types in the body. So these compounds are no "magic bullet" and a better comparison is that of carpet bombing.

    So the catch is that it does have side effects?

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @06:58PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @06:58PM (#517272)

    I see a lot of bullshitting about how natural this fucking shit is, but not a word about whether it actually works or not.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by requerdanos on Monday May 29 2017, @09:43PM (1 child)

      by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Monday May 29 2017, @09:43PM (#517325) Journal

      I see a lot... about how natural

      Another great natural substance is belladonna. It's totally all natural; its active ingredient comes from the leaves, stems, flowers, and berries of the atropa belladonna plant.

      Nature's bounty at its finest, belladonna can be used as a sedative or painkiller, or to improve asthma spasms. It helps calm whooping cough, and it's also used for things as various as Parkinson's disease, colic, and motion sickness. Very little work's required to get at the active compound because it's in all parts of the plant.

      A pesky side effect: It will also kill you stone graveyard dead. The lethal dose for adults is around twenty belladonna berries; two or three would be lethal for a child (and they supposedly taste pretty sweet, too). Death comes from the berries, or a comparable amount of leaves, stems, flowers, or even honey made by bees that fed on the nectar of belladonna plants.

      Because of the above, that "all natural" thing, while being nice, does not instantly make me go all warm and fuzzy inside. Sure, it's a good thing, all others being equal. But all natural just refers to where you got it--not to what it does.

      Further reading, "belladonna":
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropa_belladonna [wikipedia.org]
      http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-531-belladonna.aspx?activeingredientid=531&activeingredientname=belladonna [webmd.com]

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Rivenaleem on Tuesday May 30 2017, @02:39PM

        by Rivenaleem (3400) on Tuesday May 30 2017, @02:39PM (#517653)

        Do you know what is also "all natural"? Rocks. Rocks are typically 100% natural, though you may find many that have been processed by humans. It is a well known that the repeated application of rocks to the testes or epididymis can result in an irreversible contraceptive in males. There are a few side effects, but the process is quite natural and we all know that's what matters most, right?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @11:42PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @11:42PM (#517375)

      The summary says "they work."

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @08:20PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @08:20PM (#517298)

    Carpets need to be banned from airplanes!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @09:42PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @09:42PM (#517322)

    So "natural" university lab discovered it.

    Fucking morons.

  • (Score: 2, Troll) by Gaaark on Monday May 29 2017, @10:01PM (1 child)

    by Gaaark (41) on Monday May 29 2017, @10:01PM (#517333) Journal

    "Researchers Find Natural Contraceptive"

    I thought they were talking about Roseanne Barr, or Celine Dion.... or Hillary Clinton maybe...

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:45AM

      by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:45AM (#518029) Journal

      Troll!?!?!

      Get some laughs in your lives, people!
      Sheesh!

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
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