Last month, Pope Francis won the hearts and minds of many nonbelievers when he told reporters that having too many children is an irresponsible choice and that just because humans could breed like rabbits, they probably shouldn't. Now, after he's come under fire from Catholics around the world, he's changed his mind. » 2/11/15 12:50pm 2/11/15 12:50pm

Congratulations, climate change deniers: You've won. In your quest to convince everyone that pollution and global warming doesn't exist you've hurt the only beings that can't hurt you back: The Coke-loving polar bears. You've hurt them right in their soft fuzzy dicks. » 1/26/15 4:45pm 1/26/15 4:45pm

This likely won't surprise anybody who spent 2009 studiously ignoring the remaining balance on their ATM receipts, but the birth rate takes a noticeable hit during a recession. It's not simply that everybody puts childbearing off a couple of years — there are fewer babies born overall. » 9/30/14 11:40am 9/30/14 11:40am

Today we have two new stories about your uterus: one that reveals that the sound of a ticking clock can actually speed up a woman's desire to have children, and another that reveals that young women who don't hear that clock in their heads (or who want to ignore it) are attending parties where they learn how to… » 8/14/14 8:15pm 8/14/14 8:15pm

Here is your daily dose of futuristic medical news: The AP reports that after a decade of research, doctors in Sweden have successfully transplanted wombs from living donors into 9 women. » 1/13/14 10:30am 1/13/14 10:30am

If more of the educational videos kids watched about a sperm's magical luge ride through the Fallopian tubes looked and sounded like this, you can bet someone would have made a "Journey of the Sperm" video game by now. It could still be a great game, but only if it were an ongoing MMO tournament that restarted every… » 12/29/13 5:00pm 12/29/13 5:00pm

Yesterday, a proposed ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy was rejected by voters of Albuquerque. We're not talking a polite "it's not you, it's me" kind of rejection. We're talking changing your phone number-level rejection. We're talking Moving To Another City Without Telling You kind of rejection. Here's… » 11/20/13 11:40am 11/20/13 11:40am

Freaking out about teen girls having teen sex is as American an institution as packing one's overtaxed colon full of heavily processed meats during football games. But reality paints a different picture than the pearl-clutching; for the severalth year in a row, all that sex teens are supposedly having due to TWERKING… » 9/06/13 5:00pm 9/06/13 5:00pm

What started as an investigation into developmental mouse biology has become a lot more than that. Biologist Katsuhiko Hayashi discovered a way to turn mouse skin cells into sperm and egg cells — and actually used these modified cells to create a living baby mouse. The question is, can it work in humans? » 8/21/13 9:59pm 8/21/13 9:59pm

The children's literature market has come a long way since (the ever wonderful and important) Pat the Bunny. These days, kid's tales tackle topics from adoption to egg donation — and they do it in giant books with adorable, full-color illustrations. Basically, if you're looking for something to explain to your… » 4/10/13 10:00am 4/10/13 10:00am

The most popular question of 2012 on Slate's "The Explainer" was "Why do rich ladies sunbathe topless?" After that important exercise in investigative journalism was completed, Slate doubled back to answer another high-ranked question that's a modicum more interesting, although the interested parties could probably… » 1/12/13 4:30pm 1/12/13 4:30pm

Um! If any girlfish are reading this, please beware when you come across male freshwater llanos mosquitofish, otherwise known as Gambusia quadruncus. The evolution of the females of this Mexican species has given them a large ball of tissue that blocks most of their genital canal in order to allow them to keep away… » 9/29/12 2:40pm 9/29/12 2:40pm

In some parts of the world, there has been a considerable decline in sperm quality and quantity in recent years, according to reports from sperm banks as well as evidence from scientific research. The cause is not yet known, but some are pointing pollutants and a "modern Western lifestyle," which includes cellphones… » 8/29/12 12:00pm 8/29/12 12:00pm

Despite vigorous headshaking from healthcare professionals who don't live in Denmark, 1 in 13 women still drink even when they're pregnant. A CDC report released Thursday found that 51.5 percent of non-pregnant women ages 18-44 said they had used alcohol in the past 30 days, with 7.6 percent of pregnant women in that… » 7/19/12 9:15pm 7/19/12 9:15pm

According to new research from (duh) Europe, pregnant women who cave to the siren's call of a glass of wine or four don't necessarily put their future babies at risk for cognitive problems, at least early in life. Unfortunately, a distended pregnant abdomen may make it difficult for others to take body shots off of… » 6/20/12 7:00pm 6/20/12 7:00pm

File this under "Future Very, Very Rich People Problems" — a British medical panel ruled today that a method of in vitro fertilization that seeks to eliminate inherited genetic diseases by introducing a third set of DNA to the mix is ethical as long as it's safe and effective. And as long as all parties agree on… » 6/12/12 11:55am 6/12/12 11:55am