2009 review: Sex at the noughties' end

14:00 26 December 2009 by Nic Fleming
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In the last year of the noughties there was plenty to hold the attention of those with an academic interest in sexual attraction and reproduction.

Male engineers and computer programmers could take heart from psychologists' finding that females were particularly attracted to problem-solvers – and that went for both satin bowerbirds and humans.

Slightly less encouraging for these problem-solvers was the discovery that they – along with other men – are more likely to attract admiring glances from single women if they are already taken.

An evolutionary biologist summarised existing knowledge about the female orgasm, a subject returned to in a report on six things science has taught us about the female orgasm.

In the animal kingdom, researchers from China captured an alarming act of bat fellatio on film, while others pondered the evolutionary implications of dozens of species engaging in same-sex relations.

The received wisdom that couples should abstain from sex for several days before trying to conceive was again undermined by fertility doctors, who said that daily sex is good for sperm quality. And New Scientist posted footage from an experiment in which a couple were filmed having sex while in an MRI scanner (see also 2009 review: Most popular articles of the year – not surprisingly).