Working on a laptop wirelessly may hamper(妨礙，限制) a man’s chances of fatherhood.

In a study, sperm placed under a laptop connected to the internet through wi-fi suffered more damage than that kept at the same temperature but away from the wireless signal.
研究表明，精子受連接wifi網絡的手提電腦的輻射的損害遠遠大于同溫度之下遠離wifi的電腦的輻射。

The finding is important because previous worries about laptops causing infertility（不育） have focused on the heat generated by the machines.

In the latest study, researchers took sperm from 29 men aged 26 to 45 and placed them either under a wi-fi connected laptop or away from the computer.

The laptop then uploaded and downloaded information from the internet for four hours.

At the end of the experiment, 25 percent of the sperm under the laptop had stopped moving and 9 percent showed DNA damage.

By comparison, just 14 percent of samples（樣本） kept away from the wi-fi stopped moving. And just 3 percent suffered DNA damage, the journal Fertility and Sterility（不育） reports.

The wireless connection creates electromagnetic radiation（電磁輻射） that damages semen（精液）, the scientists, from the United States and Argentina, believe.

Lead researcher Conrado Avendano, of Nascentis Medicina Reproductiva in Cordoba, said: ‘Our data suggest that the use of a laptop computer wirelessly connected to the internet and positioned near the male reproductive organs（生殖器官） may decrease human sperm quality.

‘At present we do not know whether this effect is induced by all laptop computers connected by WiFi to the internet or what use conditions heighten（使加強） this effect.’

A separate（分開的） test with a laptop that was on, but not wirelessly connected, found negligible（無足輕重的） EM radiation（輻射） from the machine alone.

According to the American Urological Association, nearly one in six couples in the US have trouble conceiving（懷孕） a baby, and about half the time the man is at the root of the problem（問題的根源在于）.

While the impact of modern technology is still murky（朦朧的） , lifestyle does matter, researchers say.

Earlier this month, a report in Fertility And Sterility showed that men who eat a diet rich in fruit and grains and low in red meat, alcohol and coffee have a better shot at getting their partner pregnant during fertility treatment.