LONDON When Australian scientists announced earlier this month that they had created a mouse embryo without the use of sperm, they sparked a fiery debate. What, asked the commentators, would the nature of the family be should men not make their traditional contribution? Yet, ironically, Orly Lacham-Kaplan — a male-fertility expert — who developed the technique along with colleagues from the Monash Institute for Reproduction and Development, Melbourne, claimed it was awareness of the infertility problems associated with a low sperm count that led her to explore whether cells other than sperm could fertilise an egg.