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 'nonsexual selection', from other to daughter womb transplants to egg fertilizing computer chips, from sperm replacements for women to silicone wombs for men.