Story highlights New findings suggest sperm alone could be used to create children in the future

Research overturns almost 200 years of knowledge about fertilization

(CNN) It might be possible in the future to make babies without female eggs, new research claims.

Scientists at Bath University in the United Kingdom say they have successfully used sperm to create healthy baby mice by injecting the sperm cells directly into embryos.

"Up until now people thought the only way you could fertilize a cell with a sperm and have offspring is if the cell is an egg," Dr Tony Perry , University of Bath molecular embryologist and senior researcher, told CNN.

"(We thought) only a sperm in an egg can give you offspring. So that's something that kind of erodes from the first."

This isn't the first time scientists have attempted unconventional fertilization techniques -- previously researchers "tricked" eggs into developing into embryos without fertilization by sperm.

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