March 31, 2022

Today marks a very special anniversary in the history of our democracy: The first WrestleMania. The "Greatest Spectacle in Sports Entertainment" debuted in Madison Square Garden in 1985, featuring Hulk Hogan and Mr. T — America's true founding fathers. WrestleMania 38 is this weekend.

Why isn't there male birth control? Get the answer plus some birth control-related fun facts in today's Wrap. Let's ride.

― Key Stories

NASA's Oldest Star
Overview

• NASA said that its Hubble Telescope captured an image of the most distant (and oldest) star ever seen
• The star, 13B light-years from Earth, formed fewer than 1B years after the Big Bang (which happened 13.8B years ago)
• It's much farther from Earth than the prior farthest- identified star, which was 9B light-years away
• The discovery was possible due to a technique called “gravitational lensing,” in which gravity from large space objects acts as a magnifying lens for even farther objects. NASA named the star Earendel, which means “morning star” in Old English

Dyson's AIr-Purifying Headphones
Overview

• Vacuum-maker Dyson unveiled noise-canceling headphones with a built-in air-purifying visor
• “City air can be high in pollutants — from industrial emissions, to car exhausts,” Dyson said, adding the device will help people breathe clean air on-the-go
• A motorized fan sucks air into a purifier located within each ear piece. The purified air is then pushed into a visor in front of the mouth, enabling the user to inhale clean air
• The headphones can deliver 5 liters of clean air per second, enough for a normal jogging breathing rate. They'll go on sale this fall

Drug Test Failures Hit Record High
Overview

• The share of positive drug tests in the US is at a 2-decade high
• In 2021, 4.6% of employee drug tests were positive, up 31% in the last decade
• 3.9% of people tested positive for marijuana, up 50% from 2017. 18 states have legalized weed, and fewer companies are now testing for marijuana or considering it in hiring decisions
• Many companies are dropping drug-testing requirements, particularly for marijuana, to find more workers during the labor shortage

Bruce Willis Steps Away From Acting
Overview

• Bruce Willis, 67, said he is “stepping away” from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia
• Aphasia is a cognitive disorder that makes communication difficult
• Willis first rose to prominence with TV show Moonlighting followed by movies Die Hard, The Sixth Sense, and Pulp Fiction
• Willis’ family said he “has been experiencing some health issues...which [are] impacting his cognitive abilities. As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him”

See yesterday's results below the Wrap!

 Popcorn

Culture & Sports 

• 91k+ fans attended the Barcelona-Real Madrid women's Champions League clash, making it the most-attended women's match ever
• Break in like Beckham! A masked burglar broke into David Beckham's $50M+ London home while he and his wife were there
• Finally, art on a streaming service: The Spy Kids franchise is heading to Netflix, where it will be relaunched and reimagined

• One nation under crypto: 20% of US adults have invested in, traded, or used cryptocurrency, according to a new NBC News poll
• Out-of-this-world Baconator! Wendy's is entering the Metaverse. The burger chain is partnering with Meta for an immersive experience
• FedEx is getting into the drone delivery game! Its drones will be able to carry between 300 and 500 pounds of cargo to locations 300 miles away

• Hackers reportedly stole over $500M in cryptocurrency from blockchain project Ronin, making it the 2nd biggest crypto theft on record
• You've got a friend in... Moscow? A US astronaut returned to Earth on a Russian space capsule after 355 days on the ISS
• A flamingo that escaped from a Kansas zoo during a storm in 2005 has been spotted in Texas. There are no plans to recapture it
• In order to avoid Russia, Cathay Pacific is rerouting its New York to Hong Kong flight to go over the Atlantic Ocean for a 16-17 hour flight

― Roca Wrap

A Newsletter Exclusive

Last week, the American Chemical Society announced that a male birth control pill proved 99% effective in mice. But why doesn't such a pill exist already?

The hunt for birth control has been ongoing for millennia. In Ancient Egypt, people used crocodile dung as spermicide; in New Guinea, women used a jungle plant as a sheath; in Japan, they used tortoise shells as condoms. 

Around 1875, scientists learned the physical process through which sex created babies. Soon after, they set out to create medical birth control. 

They had some early successes – including a silk-worm derived IUD in 1909 – but it wasn’t until 1960, when “the pill” gained widespread approval, that reliable, safe, and effective birth control became available. In the years since, a widening range of options have hit the market: Pills, patches, shots, IUDs.

Yet after all these years, there are still just 2 forms available to men: Condoms, which are single-use and can fail, and vasectomy, a surgical procedure that is considered permanent because of the uncertainty around reversing it. Why is there no better option?

Male birth control has to do one of the following: Reduce the creation and formation of sperm; stop sperm from leaving the body; stop sperm from reaching an egg; or stop sperm from fertilizing an egg. 

Most proposed treatments for achieving those goals have focused on increasing testosterone, which, while upping sex drive, can suppress the release of hormones that drive sperm production. There are also proposed non-hormonal treatments that would use chemicals to interrupt these processes.

The crux of the problem is this: Treatments that substantially reduce sperm count almost always impact the body in other noticeable ways. 

Hormonal treatments have yielded a range of side effects deemed unacceptable. They include weight gain, changes to mood and sex drive, distorted muscle and cholesterol levels, and more. As the director of Johns Hopkins’ men’s health program told the New York Times, more than with female birth control, “when you start messing with testosterone receptors, the body becomes very off balance and off kilter.” 

Male treatments also appear less effective. One reason is because men produce sperm at irregular frequencies while women do so regularly. That makes the process more difficult to consistently interrupt. Men also produce millions of sperm daily compared to 1 or 2 eggs per month. A treatment that cuts sperm count by even 90% would not be effective enough. 

Given the similar side effects reported by men in birth control trials and women on approved birth control, allegations of double standards are rife. Yet scientists say it’s more difficult to solve reproductive processes in men than in women. A double standard may have initially put the onus for birth control on women, but majorities of men say they want access to birth control and pharmaceutical companies and governments are spending millions to make it happen. 

A number of male birth control methods are under research today. The most promising may be a once-a-day hormonal gel rubbed on the shoulder or back, whose researchers hope to bring it to market in 5 years. Also under research are an annual injectable billed the “IUD for men,” and a shot that inserts sperm-blocking gel into the body. 

As for the 99%-effective-in-mice pill, it is non-hormonal, which some think makes it uniquely promising, and prevented pregnancy with minimal side effects. According to one of the researchers, the mice “eat, they drink, they’re sexually active even if they don’t have sperm.” It should enter clinical trials later this year.  

Some are advising caution: “I’ve been excited about animal studies demonstrating promise for male contraceptives for a while now,” said an NYU medical professor, “and each time, I get disappointed.” 

And others are excited: The researchers behind it called it “a trailblazer of non-hormonal birth control.”

Either way, for now, the puzzle of male birth control remains unsolved.

 Games

1. The Ultimate Driving Machine
2. Shave Time. Shave Money
3. It Could be You
4. Think Small

 Roca Clubhouse

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― Final Thoughts