Word: conceptus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...stimulate maturation of her egg cells. Then, through a small incision in her abdomen, the doctors removed one or more eggs from the ovary, placed them in a laboratory culture medium and exposed them to her husband's sperm. At least one egg was fertilized, and the resulting conceptus began to divide, first into two cells, then four, then eight, and so on. A few days later, the conceptus had reached the blastocyst stage: an aggregate of cells in the form of a hollow sphere. Ordinarily, fertilization and this initial division would take place as the egg traveled through...
...type, which guarantees their femaleness; men have one X (from mother) and a Y (from father). The Y, a tiny, misshapen bit of genetic material, overpowers the X and determines maleness-but little else, although it is widely believed that masculinity includes aggressive tendencies. Nature sometimes slips the conceptus an extra Y to produce an XYY male, almost certain to be well above average height. Because a disproportionately high number of XYYs were found in penal institutions, studies beginning in the 1960s suggested that they may be prone to aggressive criminality. It has taken a decade and a large-scale...
...right patient. "When I find her, I am in a position to go ahead, but we cannot guarantee that this will be a success the first time." The reason for his doubt was that no one knows precisely what physiological mechanisms prepare the uterus to receive the conceptus and retain...
...individual egg (ovum) is drawn into the fallopian tube (oviduct) to begin a four-day journey toward the uterus. After intercourse, the husband's spermatozoa swim upstream through the uterus into the fallopian tubes, and if one sperm succeeds in penetrating an ovum, conception has occurred. The conceptus, repeatedly doubling the number of its cells, enters the uterus and imbeds itself in the lining for the remainder of the nine months' gestation...
...sperm. Bevis and several other investigators on both sides of the Atlantic reasoned that this roadblock might be bypassed if: 1) ripe ova were removed through a small surgical incision in the abdomen, 2) one was fertilized by the husband's sperm (obtained by masturbation), 3) the conceptus was kept alive and subdividing in glassware for a few days, and finally 4) it was implanted in the wife's uterus. Bevis succeeded in keeping the conceptus alive in what he calls "a complicated cocktail of nutrients and antibiotics," with as many as 40 ingredients...