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CrowdScience: Global infertility: Could The Handmaid’s Tale become reality?

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Global infertility - Could The Handmaid’s Tale Become Reality?

Global infertility: Could The Handmaid’s Tale become reality?

BBC World Service - CrowdScience, Global infertility: Could The Handmaid’s Tale become reality?

What could cause mass infertility? Marnie Chesterton investigates

Award-winning author Margaret Atwood has left a paper trail for us to follow in her novel. There’s a ream of possible causes so Marnie Chesterton investigates which ring true.

CrowdScience listeners Mark and Jess have been watching TV series, The Handmaid’s Tale. It's an adaptation of a book by Margaret Atwood and depicts a dystopian future where many have become infertile. The remaining few fertile women, known as Handmaids, are forced into child-bearing servitude. Why so many have become infertile isn’t clear but the series hints at several possible causes, from radiation to environmental pollutants.
 
All of which got Mark and Jess wondering… What could cause mass infertility? Would we descend into a political landscape akin to Gilead? Award-winning author Margaret Atwood has left a paper trail for us to follow in the pages of her novel. There’s a ream of possible causes, and so Marnie Chesterton investigates which ring true. 
 
Presented by Marnie Chesterton. Produced by Graihagh Jackson for the BBC World Service.

(Photo: Filming of the Handmaid's Tale. Credit: Getty Images)

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