eyespy: July 2005

Computers will be marking essays within a few years, claims a computing lecturer from Aberdeen. James Christie has already electronically marked first year undergraduate essays in subjects including history and geography. The software works best with “content rich, factual essays” and examiners will still have to grade a small number of essays to show the computer how. Eyespy is enlisting the help of her hacker friends to crack the code (www.guardian.co.uk).

Straight men produce better sperm when presented with pornography featuring men and women rather than pornography showing women alone. Although this is contrary to what most straight men would have Eyespy believe, this is consistent with theories of sperm competition. Competition from other men stimulates production of higher quality semen, increasing the chances of procreation. Sarah Kilgallon and Leigh Simmons of the University of Western Australia, Perth, recruited 52 men. The men viewed explicit pictures that featured either two men and a woman or three women and collected a sperm sample. Although the number was the same, men who had viewed the images featuring both sexes had more motile sperm (Biology Letters 2005, …