Techno makes better test tube babies?

[frigidmagi]

telegraph

Techno may be the missing ingredient when it comes to helping 'test tube babies' grow better, scientists have claimed.

Research carried out at the Altravita IVF clinic in Moscow found that playing the music, known for its repetitive bass line, for 24 hours a day to eggs in test tubes increased the number of viable embryos by nearly a fifth.

In the study, A State of Trance by DJ Armin van Buuren was played to 758 eggs at 80 decibels, while the same number were nurtured in silence, The Times reported.

The team, led by Alex Biryukov, found the eggs that were played the music were marginally more likely to grow into embryos, but much more likely to develop to the stage in which they could be implanted.

Their findings were presented at Fertility 2017, which was held in Edinburgh earlier this month.

Dagan Wells, an associate professor at the University of Oxford who has been involved in the study of human embryos for more than two decades, said it was possible the vibrations from the music created similar conditions to those in the womb immediately after conception.

He said: “It is possible that vibrations could simulate some of these effects by agitating the medium, helping to mix the fluid in which the embryo is immersed, diluting potentially harmful chemicals excreted by the embryo and increasing exposure to important nutrients.”

He added that there was still “much room for improvement” when it came to IVF treatment, although admitted it had “improved dramatically” in recent years.

It is not the first time the effects of music have been tested. Researchers at a clinic in Barcelona in 2013 said they found playing artists including Madonna, Metallic and Bach appeared to help eggs grow.

They told the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology’s annual conference in London that year that the songs helped increase the chances of eggs being fertilised by around 5 per cent.