The Quest for Virgin Birth, Radio 4

Males may be a luxury for children

Greek gods do it, bees do it, even sharks and water fleas do it. Parthenogenesis, that is – virgin birth. The geneticist Aarathi Prasad set out to investigate the phenomenon in animals, and wondered about the chances of it being engineered in humans.

It being the festive season, Prasad was much exercised by one – alleged – virgin birth in particular. She spoke to Professor Sam Berry, evolutionary biologist and practising Christian, who detailed ways in which Mary might have given birth to Jesus without doing the dirty deed.

For example, Mary might have had X and Y chromosomes, but could have given birth via something called back-mutation. At least I think that's what he was saying. As Prasad remarked: "You could be forgiven for thinking that those scientifically possible explanations are no more plausible than a miracle would be."

It turns out that most vertebrate groups apart from mammals have some parthenogenesis on their CVs – and an Italian doctor, Tiziana Brevini, of the biomedical embryology lab at Milan University, is doing her best to add humans to that list. She's adding calcium to eggs, which mimics what happens in fertilisation but without sperm. So, one boffin told Prasad, it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that one day sisters might be doing it for themselves. The far distant future we hope, hey, chaps?