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donate. Only
Shockley remained, and even he donated only once. Paul Smith was charged with recruiting new donors, and he traveled throughout California, focusing mainly on college campuses, in search of volunteers. Smith later estimated his "hit rate" of donors signed up compared to men he invited to be "six or eight, maybe ten" out of one hundred. The search was expanded to country-wide, and eventually more donors were recruited, although none of them were – then or currently – Nobel laureates. At the time of his death, Graham had expanded his requirements to allow athletes, artists, and businessmen as donors.
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Graham's original intention was to monitor the outcomes of children produced through the bank's sperm, and he asked families using the bank's sperm to agree to periodic surveys; however, most recipients showed no interest in sharing information on their children once the procedure was over, and when
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Although most news articles of the time made much of the
Repository's "Nobel sperm" standards, in fact the Repository is only known to have stocked the sperm of one Nobelist, William Shockley. Other donors were recruited from among the ranks of scientists and academics Graham and his assistant, Paul
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who had shown interest in the bank. At the time of Graham's death, the bank claimed to have produced 217 children, none of whom from sperm donated from Graham's initial focus, Nobel Prize winners. When Kimble died in 1998 the combined relatives of both men decided to close down the bank. All sperm
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Graham's initial attempts to recruit Nobel laureates who lived near the
Repository yielded only three volunteers, Shockley among them; however, when the news media began reporting on the existence and intentions of the Repository, two of the laureates broke off their ties to Graham and did not
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he sent out a survey to recipient families in the early 1990s, few families responded. Two women who claimed to have been the recipients of
Repository sperm and to have raised children born of that sperm responded anonymously to a series of articles in
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were false; in fact, women did not need to meet any particular intellectual requirement. Essentially, any woman who was married, in good health, and not homosexual was accepted; the only women reported to have been refused sperm were "one who took
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broadcast in 2004. The documentary briefly touched upon Kaiser's viewpoints at the time, and reunited him with three of the nine children that reputedly had resulted from his donations. Although not a Nobel laureate, Kaiser did achieve a
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visit the "high-IQ sperm bank," intending to donate specimens, only to leave after
Sheldon suffers a moral crisis over committing "genetic fraud" by donating sperm that may not produce the promised genius offspring.
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As with the
Repository's criteria to accept sperm donors, its criteria for women to receive sperm from the bank were not as high as initially reported. Rumors that women were required to be members of
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in 2006, went over the history of the
Repository and various statements made by Graham. The program also featured discussion from another donor, University of Central Oklahoma biology professor
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and two were reported to be "artistically precocious". One child was reported by his parents as a "math-science genius" and another as a "musical whizz". All the children contacted by
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One donor named Jason Kaiser, known as Orange Red at the repository, was featured in the 2003 documentary along with Paul Kisak. The documentary was entitled
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focused on the sperm bank, interviewing people who donated, people who went to the sperm bank seeking donated sperm, and people who were born as a result.
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Robert Graham managed the bank until his death in
February 1997 and the responsibilities were passed to Floyd Kimble, a businessman from
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article reported on the highlights of the lives of fifteen of the resultant children. Of the fifteen, six reportedly had 4.0
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from 1980 to 1999. The repository is commonly believed to have accepted only donations from recipients of the
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tells the story of a fictitious child produced by the sperm bank, who searches for his biological father.
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were in good health, except one, who had what his mother described as a "developmental disability".
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samples were destroyed; it remains unclear what happened to the
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in 2001. Both stated that their children were extremely intelligent and healthy.
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The Genius
Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank
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wrote several articles on the repository for the online magazine,
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https://waitingroom.substack.com/p/the-nobel-prize-sperm-bank
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Quickly dubbed the Nobel sperm bank, Graham's project . . . .
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A Bizarre Tale of the Rise and Fall of an Elitist Sperm Bank
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Smith, considered to be "the future Nobel laureates".
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278:(2005). Moreover, a documentary, which aired on
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664:Privately held companies based in California
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366:David Plotz (February 23, 2001).
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421:David Plotz (February 8, 2001).
16:Former sperm bank in California
299:satirizes the repository when
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669:Companies established in 1980
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462:"The "Genius Babies" Grow Up"
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460:David Plotz (May 30, 2001).
244:A later segment of the same
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619:waitingroom.substack.com
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112:(originally named the
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483:The genius sperm bank
324:("Almost Genius") by
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137:Robert Klark Graham
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32:Fertility treatment
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595:BBC Article
400:October 28,
322:Fast genial
280:BBC Horizon
266:David Plotz
264:Journalist
207:Engineering
201:and had an
133:Nobel Prize
638:Categories
624:2021-08-17
344:References
213:Recipients
185:degree in
147:Management
125:sperm bank
504:. Season
209:degrees.
468:24 March
429:24 March
374:24 March
332:See also
260:In media
230:Outcomes
195:Intertel
123:) was a
116:, after
25:Industry
464:. Slate
425:. Slate
370:. Slate
305:Sheldon
301:Leonard
224:lithium
199:the CIA
81: (
76:Defunct
66:Founder
56: (
48:Founded
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546:Bank"
160:Donors
527:. CNN
496:Pilot
271:Slate
254:Slate
246:Slate
238:Slate
219:Mensa
191:Mensa
569:ISBN
533:2015
470:2010
431:2010
402:2016
376:2010
303:and
250:GPAs
153:Ohio
108:The
83:1999
79:1999
58:1980
51:1980
510:CBS
498:".
203:MBA
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