And the Winner is...

Tiny molecules guide the way for the sperm to find the egg cell inside the womb, or the cancer cell to spread. Barbara Hobom reports in FAZ (20.4.2006) about chemotaxis, the scientific notion that cells have particular receptors on their outside membrane that help to navigate through the body by clinching to special proteins. Recent research has shown that the run of the myriad of sperms for the egg is no random competition, but the tracking down of odour-like molecules released by egg cells. And the ability of sperm to 'smell' the egg is somewhat correlated to its maturity for fertilisation. Concerning the spread of metastases inside the body, chemotaxis describes why cancers only proliferate to particular tissue or organs.