Scientists say early experiments suggest it may one day be possible to make babies without using eggs.

科学家称，早期实验表明，将来某一天或许不需要卵子就能孕育出婴儿。

They have succeeded in creating healthy baby mice by tricking sperm into believing they were fertilising normal eggs.

通过欺骗精子，让其认为自己使正常卵子受精，科学家们已经成功“造”出了健康的小鼠。

The findings in Nature Communications, could, in the distant future, mean women can be removed from the baby-making process, say the researchers.

该研究成果发表在《自然通讯》杂志上。研究者指出，实验结果还意味着，将来生育孩子也许不再需要女性。

For now, the work helps to explain some of the details of fertilisation.

目前，这一研究有助于解释受精过程中的一些细节。

End of mum and dad?

不再需要爸爸和妈妈？

The University of Bath scientists started with an unfertilised egg in their experiments. They used chemicals to trick it into becoming a pseudo-embryo.

巴斯大学的科学家们在实验中使用了一枚未受精的卵细胞。他们使用化学物质将其“装饰”成一枚假胚胎。

These "fake" embryos share much in common with ordinary cells, such as skin cells, in the way they divide and control their DNA.

这些“假”胚胎与皮肤细胞等正常细胞在分裂和控制DNA方面有很多共同点。

The researchers reasoned that if injecting sperm into mouse pseudo-embryos could produce healthy babies, then it might one day be possible to achieve a similar result in humans using cells that are not from eggs.

研究者因此认为，如果向老鼠的“假”胚胎中注射精子能够制造出健康小鼠，那么将来通过使用非卵子细胞也可能在人类生育问题上取得同样结果。

In the mouse experiments, the odds of achieving a successful pregnancy was one in four.

在使用老鼠进行的实验中，怀孕成功率为四分之一。

Dr Tony Perry, one of the researchers, told the BBC News website: "This is the first time that anyone has been able to show that anything other than an egg can combine with a sperm in this way to give rise to offspring.

研究者之一托尼-佩里博士在接受BBC新闻网站采访时说：“卵子以外的细胞能以此种方式与精子结合，并且孕育出新生命，这尚属首次。”

"It overturns nearly 200 years of thinking."

“它颠覆了人们近200年来的认识。”

Those baby mice were healthy, had a normal life expectancy and had healthy pups of their own.

实验中诞生的老鼠们都很健康，有着正常的预期寿命，并能繁衍健康的后代。