Americans Suck at Sex… According to Durex Global Survey

The results of the 2007/2008 Durex Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey results are in – and we Americans should be sad.

Americans spend nearly three hours every week grooming themselves, but less than one hour on foreplay and sexual intercourse. It’s no wonder that only 46% of us describe our love lives as exciting, or existent for that matter.

On average, Americans spend 35 minutes on foreplay and sexual intercourse each session. And since we have sex once every 4.3 days, that averages out to about 57 minutes per week – 14 minutes below the global average.

Durex also revealed that Americans are having a lot less sex than just about everyone else in the world, and when we do, less than half are fully satisfied. Great job, U.S.

Americans have sex just 85 times a year (about once every 4.3 days), well below the global average of 103 times (about once every 3.5 days), with only the Japanese (48 times), residents of Hong Kong (82 times) and Nigerians (84 times) having less sex.

Key findings about Americans compared to the world after the jump!

While Americans might be somewhat bored in bed, we have ideas about what we can do to improve their sex lives; most notably, less stressful lives (37%) and more romance (35%) top the list.

Other key findings from the report include:

American men average 13 partners, which is:
- Ten less than Canadians (23)
- Three less than the British (16)
- One less than Mexicans (14)
- Equal to the global average (13)

American women average nine partners, which is:
- One less than Canadians (10)
- One less than the British (10)
- Three more than Mexicans (6)
- Two more than the global average (7)

Oral sex (69%) and sensual massage (62%) top the list of activities in the bedroom

More than four out of ten (42%) enjoy sexual fantasies and erotica (41%) to boost the libido

Older people still enjoy a variety of activities to keep passion alive, as more than 52% of those 55 or older give oral sex and 29% act out sexual fantasies

Globally, 48% of those 55 or older practice oral sex and more than a third (36%) act out sexual fantasies

Researchers discover gene that blocks HIV

Stephen Barr, a molecular virologist in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, says his team has identified a gene called TRIM22 that can block HIV infection in a cell culture by preventing the assembly of the virus.

“When we put this gene in cells, it prevents the assembly of the HIV virus,” said Barr, a postdoctoral fellow. “This means the virus cannot get out of the cells to infect other cells, thereby blocking the spread of the virus.”

Barr and his team also prevented cells from turning on TRIM22 – provoking an interesting phenomenon: the normal response of interferon, a protein that co-ordinates attacks against viral infections, became useless at blocking HIV infection.

“This means that TRIM22 is an essential part of our body’s ability to fight off HIV. The results are very exciting because they show that our bodies have a gene that is capable of stopping the spread of HIV.”

One of the greatest challenges in battling HIV is the virus’ ability to mutate and evade medications. Antiretroviral drugs introduced during the late 1990s interfere with HIV’s ability to produce new copies of itself – and even they are beneficial, the drugs are unable to eradicate the virus. Barr and his team have discovered a gene that could potentially do the job naturally.

“There are always newly emerging drug-resistant strains of HIV so the push has been to develop more natural means of blocking the virus. The discovery of this gene, which is natural in our cells, might provide a different avenue,” said Barr. “The gene prevents the assembly of the virus so in the future the idea would be to develop drugs or vaccines that can mimic the effects of this gene.”

“We are currently trying to figure out why this gene does not work in people infected with HIV and if there is a way to turn this gene on in those individuals,” he added. “We hope that our research will lead to the design of new drugs, or vaccines that can halt the person-to-person transmission of HIV and the spread of the virus in the body, thereby blocking the onset of AIDS.”

The researchers are now investigating the gene’s ability to battle other viruses.

Barr’s research is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research. The findings are published in the Public Library of Science Pathogens.

Source: University of Alberta

The World’s Biggest Spiderweb

This might be one of the biggest, if not the biggest spiderweb ever found. This huge web was found covering 180 meters of trees and bushes by the employees of park Lake Tawakoni in Texas. It’s not yet clear if this “work of art” has been made by a single or a colony of spiders. The web was initially white, but turned dark when all the mosquitoes got caught in it. Also, nothing was said about the species of spider found at the location. Until further information is provided, here is the huge white web.