Speaking mostly to myself, as I often do, there are times when I want to bring back that old piece I found somewhere and post it again.
It makes me feel good, as I wander off to read some science blogs.
That was the case this evening, and thank god for it or I’d never have seen The Intersection’s piece on Evolutionary psychology: the adaptive significance of semen flavor. I learned, via Jerry A. Coyne, Ph.D, a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, that semen tastes bad, it just does, and despite his initial confusion, as an evolutionary psychologist, and a man I’m sure, as to why nature hadn’t compensated the taste with some added sugars, making it at least tolerable, he finally came up with the truth.
Semen just tastes bad.
And guess what?
It tastes bad because it belongs in the vagina not the mouth, and until women vomit up their offspring the taste isn’t going to get any better.
Fact is if this stuff was meant to be swallowed nature would have made it taste like a root beer float, or at the very least a gin and tonic.
Thank you Professor.
Tags: science
hmmmm Cooper… certainly an interesting viewpoint… especially the statistics put forward by Jerry Coyne…
reading the comments was excellent entertainment :)
laketrees’s last blog post..Anzac Day 2009 — my Artwork published!
Comments on some blogs or news sites are often the best part.
What no jumping up and down screaming I told you so? YouR self control is amazing coop.
SALT-TEQUILA
g’s last blog post..Not for nothing
i should’ve visited ages ago, but apparently my life hasn’t permitted that until recently. and then i may have to disappear again. that said, i miss you, cooooooooooooper! :)
anyway, how serendipitous that i should come across this post! a colleague and i had been discussing the exact same thing. i recommended pineapples if she were feeling generous with her partner, but we finally OD’d on the conversation and agreed that if semen does belong in the vagina, it should at least be collected in the reservoir tip of a condom. heh ho.
We are telepathically connected you are I.
Hilarious. If someone developed a diet to improve the flavor of semen, I wonder if we’d follow it.
Doug’s last blog post..Advice to my Nephew, Jake, on the day after his fifth birthday (Adults Only)
I’d say don’t bother.
I want to know who was tasting all the semens with additives in this study!
Angela’s last blog post..Ask me ANYTHING.
I think he asked his female friends.
So let’s get this straight. If Semen tasted good there would be a decrease in reproduction? Sounds like we have another task for scientists, that off making semen taste good, especially in countries which can’t sustain their population, which at this point that is most of the globe.
jacob’s last blog post..Meet Cheyenne Woods
No, Jacob.
If semen tasted good, there’d be a lot of happy men laying about and there’d be no good songs about heartbreak or love.
sauerkraut’s last blog post..Republican Senator Arlen Specter switches parties
Would a drug-addict’s semen be more addictive than that of a teetotaler?
Ike’s last blog post..The Narcissist’s Mirror
Jake, I see your point, of course there is no reason to make it taste good it is what it is and it needs to stay where it belongs, imo. ;)
It’s an acquired taste that apparently always tastes really bad.
Chris’s last blog post..The Media is Still Dumb
[…] Ask Cooper. Here —-» http://wonderlandornot.net/2009/04/28/semen-tastes-bad/ […]
“Anyone with minimal sexual experience knows that although many women will perform fellatio on their partners, most bridle at the thought of swallowing the ejaculate. Its flavor is frequently characterized as revoltingly bitter or salty.”
Apparently the researchers sexual experience was *really* minimal. I’ve yet to run into someone who didn’t think semen tasted just fine. Nothing quite like research based on false assumptions.
“I’ve yet to run into someone who didn’t think semen tasted just fine”
Surely you jest. lol
Um, I just so happen to be taking a test on this today (okay, not this exactly, but the reproductive systems), and one of the facts I learned was that the seminal vesicles (which are responsible for 60% of the fluid in semen) actually produce a yellowish fluid which is rich in fructose (a sugar). Maybe if someone had overactive seminal vesicles, the stuff would taste sweeter?
I should really get back to studying…
B.’s last blog post..One down, one to go!
I shouldn’t have read this while eating.
OK, now I see why Richard Dawkins likes Jerry Coyne so much. Neither of them ever saw a snark that they couldn’t exploit at full volume. Their willingness to have a laugh at the expense of someone or something they hate (in this case, the field of evolutionary psychology, which is viewed as non-science; the key phrase is “non-testable”) sometimes transcends the boundaries of (ahem) good taste. Coyne is not an evolutionary psychologist; his post is broad satire, designed mostly to tell the reader just how very very smart Coyne is; the writer of The Interpreter appears to have missed the point.
Copulation (ok, “sex”) gets us into so much trouble. Why don’t we just get rid of it? ;)
the amoeba’s last blog post..Abe Lincoln’s Bum Rush
I thought they actually got the point but I went directly to Cotne’s satire before actually absorbing the former. I wish you were writing for some of those group Amoeba.
Bake at 375 for 40 minutes. Brings out the sweetness.
Paul Malden’s last blog post..Cartoon #2
Does itharden like candy or semi harden like fudge..sounds awful.
Scientists can be funny too. That is a relief.
Doesn’t look like women will be vomiting babies anytime soon. People will just have to continue to be creative.
john’s last blog post..Bachmann Boo Boo’s, Again
“One answer was a non-response (”I should be so lucky”)”
LOL
I imagine that in some cultures, the males with the best-tasting semen are like royalty.
Bone’s last blog post..To Dalhausser or not to Dalhausser?
“I imagine that in some cultures, the males with the best-tasting semen are like royalty.“
I wonder how long the volunteer list for that search is? Pretty short I imagine.
That was almost cute, and from a scientist no less.
I don’t even want to know what his budget was for this study. The stuff is revolting enough to look at, who would want to taste it??
actonbell’s last blog post..A little magic
I don’t think it cost a thing.
exactly. To each his own though.
No duh!
Croaker’s last blog post..
That was a fun article you linked to. I guess if you can find a way to make sperm taste better you’d be in strong contention for the nobel prize. Maybe it will be a lady scientist who finally does it. I’m sure there will be no problems getting donations to fund the project.
There’s also the “sweet sperm” diet:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Sperm-Taste — 10-Simple-Tips-For-Better-Tasting-Semen&id=164106
Closing your eyes helps.
casey’s last blog post..Glad I’m not on that plane.