Most cultures tell the tale of a maiden who gives birth untouched by a man. Is this just a myth, or could virgin birth be the way we make babies in the future?

In Like a Virgin, biologist Aarathi Prasad looks at inconceivable ideas about conception, from the “Jesus Christ” lizard’s ability to self-reproduce (it walks on water, too) to the tabloid hunt for a real-life virgin mother by geneticists in the 1950s. Prasad then transports us to the maverick laboratories that today are inventing the equivalent of “non-sexual selection”, from mother-to-daughter womb transplants to egg-fertilizing computer chips, from sperm replacements for women to silicone wombs for men.