Putrescene and cadaverine

[ritaxis]

I am always surprised when I re-discover that putrescene and cadaverine are in semen.  On the face of it, it seems so counterproductive for the most terrible smelling (and somewhat toxic) chemicals to be present in such a life-giving fluid.  As far as I can tell, they're in there to provide alkalinity, to counteract the natural acids in the vaginal canal and thus allow the spermies to live long enough to attach to the egg.

I was reading about all these things because I wanted to know what this one character in this one story was going to encounter when his consciousness was observing the cellular and molecular levels of a sex event.  I was gratified to find room for a certain amount of hydraulic metaphors, since the fellow is a commited hydrologist and spend most of his time thinking about watersheds and the health of water delivery systems in a world where all this is controlled by engineered bacteria and algae.

And this is why I love science fiction.  When I'm writing it, everything is relevant.

Comments

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Oh! I didn't know about cadaverine and putrescene in semen. My.

[momomom.livejournal.com]

This is fascinating, thank you for sharing the tidbits of your research.