It's the unmentionable physical act that's inspired generations of musicians, artists, writers and reality television stars.

But it turns out that procreative sex might soon be a distant memory as humanity ditches nookie and produces babies using more predictable scientific methods.

Henry Greely, a professor of law and genetics at Stanford University, has penned a book called The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction in which he claims that within "twenty, maybe forty, years most people in developed countries will stop having sex for the purpose of reproduction".

Rather than introducing sperm to egg through the sweaty and often awkward rigamole of rumpy-pumpy, couples will instead head down to a laboratory where a scientist will make a baby for them.

"When a couple wants a baby, he'll provide sperm and she'll provide a punch of skin," Greely told the Sunday Times.

Stem cells will then be produced from the skin, ordered to turn into eggs and used to make babies, freeing prospective parents from worrying about boring old things like orgasms and sexy underwear.

Just like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World , sex will be strictly recreational and enjoyed as a hobby like topiary or stamp-collecting, rather than being used to make bambinos.