Like a Virgin: Exploring the frontiers of conception

Most cultures tell the tale of a maiden who gives birth untouched by a man, and in the wild there are plenty of creatures – turkeys, komodo ‘dragons’, sharks, and the ‘Jesus Christ’ lizard (which walks on water, too) – that take various approaches to making babies without having sex. Soon, with the help of science, humans will likely have that option, too.

Dr Aarathi Prasad shares the history of inconceivable ideas about conception, from a Renaissance-era recipe for creating a child (bury semen in manure for 40 days) to the tabloid search for a true virgin mother in the 1950s to the birth of Louise Joy Brown, the first test tube baby, outside Manchester, in 1978. She then takes us on a tour of artificial reproduction today, including the boom in the surrogate mother business in India, and the work underway in the cutting-edge labs that are creating ‘sex-less reproduction’, from the race to manufacture effective sperm to the invention of an artificial womb (already being used to nurture sharks to birth).

As our understanding of sex and reproduction has changed, so too have the roles of women and men, the definition of a parent, and the balance of work and family. The next generation of technologies promise to rewrite family, in provocative and profound ways.

Admission: by free ticket only, available from yorkfestivalofideas.com/tickets