How a sperm and an egg fuse together has long been a mystery. New research by scientists in Austria provides tantalizing clues, showing fertilization works like a lock and key across the animal ...

Using a tiny, spherical glass lens sandwiched between two brass plates, the 17th-century Dutch microscopist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first to officially describe red blood cells and sperm cells ...

Once a sperm has broken through to an egg cell in order to fertilize it, the two cells need to hold together tightly. This occurs via a type of protein binding that is among the strongest in ...

Katsuhiko Hayashi pulls a clear plastic dish from an incubator and slides it under a microscope. "You really want to see the actual cells, right?" Hayashi asks as he motions toward the microscope.