16 July 2013
Making Babies
We all learn that life begins when egg meets sperm, but sometimes things need a helping hand. There are almost 50 million infertile couples in the world who cannot conceive naturally, and many turn to in vitro fertilisation (IVF). ‘In vitro’ literally means ‘in glass’ and that is exactly what happens – the egg is fertilised outside the body in a glass dish. Here, an extremely fine needle (on the right) is being used to inject a single sperm into a human egg. This delicate process must be carried out under a microscope. On the left, the tip of a tiny glass pipette is used to hold the egg steady. If fertilisation is successful, the egg is allowed to develop into an embryo before being transferred to the mother’s womb. The first successful IVF baby was born in 1978, and since then the procedure has helped countless couples become parents.
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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.
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