The Egg or the Chicken Conundrum - Mystery unfolded finally
Well, I am glad I didn't have to find it. Obviously, it is the work of scientists to explore and find answers to such kind of questions. (As if they don't have anything else better to do.) I am sure, one of those scientists might have had an ego hurt w.r.t. this particular question, because of which he might have decided to spend his precious brain, time, and other people's money on such kind of research.
Neverthless, I am glad that the answer has been revealed and proven too now. So, there won't be any silly mysterious reference to such kind of questions any more, though it might have opened gates to some other questions and research work (sigh!..If only they could work on some productive things like using photosynthesis to generate electricity, making it usable and then commercialize it, instead of working on such kind of things).
Anyways, here is the good news - Scientists in London have claimed to have finally discovered the answer to the enigma— it's the chicken which came first. A team from University of Sheffield and University of Warwick has discovered that a protein called ovocleidin (OC-17) is crucial in the formation of eggshells. It is produced in the pregnant hen's ovaries so the correct reply to the egg riddle must be that the chicken came first. However, the research does not come up with how the protein-producing chicken existed in the first place.
The team of researchers made use of a hi-tech computer, called HECToR, to look at the molecular structure of a shell. They discovered that OC-17 acts as a catalyst, kickstarting the conversion of calcium carbonate in the chicken's body into calcite crystals.
These crystals actually make up the hard shell that houses the yolk and its protective fluids while the chick develops.
Lead scientist Colin Freeman of Sheffield University said: "It had long been suspected that the egg came first but now we have the scientific proof that shows that in fact the chicken came first."
The scientists now hope the breakthrough could be used in industry to help develop new materials.
What can I say on all this - "All the best!"....
Neverthless, I am glad that the answer has been revealed and proven too now. So, there won't be any silly mysterious reference to such kind of questions any more, though it might have opened gates to some other questions and research work (sigh!..If only they could work on some productive things like using photosynthesis to generate electricity, making it usable and then commercialize it, instead of working on such kind of things).
Anyways, here is the good news - Scientists in London have claimed to have finally discovered the answer to the enigma— it's the chicken which came first. A team from University of Sheffield and University of Warwick has discovered that a protein called ovocleidin (OC-17) is crucial in the formation of eggshells. It is produced in the pregnant hen's ovaries so the correct reply to the egg riddle must be that the chicken came first. However, the research does not come up with how the protein-producing chicken existed in the first place.
The team of researchers made use of a hi-tech computer, called HECToR, to look at the molecular structure of a shell. They discovered that OC-17 acts as a catalyst, kickstarting the conversion of calcium carbonate in the chicken's body into calcite crystals.
These crystals actually make up the hard shell that houses the yolk and its protective fluids while the chick develops.
Lead scientist Colin Freeman of Sheffield University said: "It had long been suspected that the egg came first but now we have the scientific proof that shows that in fact the chicken came first."
The scientists now hope the breakthrough could be used in industry to help develop new materials.
What can I say on all this - "All the best!"....
That was quite a gyan! ;-)
ReplyDeleteSo now the million dollar question is 'how the protein-producing chicken existed in the first place'!
I don’t have an answer to this pickle question but there are some questions for which people simply waste their time and energy and I still have not figured out why.
For example, you must have learnt math from school and if you still have not forgotten the 4 quadrants of a graph, why is it numbered in anti-clockwise direction starting from 1 and that too from the right top?
I could start from the left bottom as well and I could also number it in a clockwise manner!
What about the negative axis and positive axis? I could reverse them as well!
Now another typical question, why does a ceiling fan always rotate in a counter-clockwise motion?
It was very interesting when I started observing these 8 years back and do you know that this happens only with ceiling fans?
The table fan on the other hand follows a clockwise motion!
Now, the funny thing is...an ideal fan should rotate in both directions providing heating effect by sucking in the air when its winter and by blowing the air when its summer!
I can think of 100 questions like these for which I always have searched for an answer!!!
So yeah, I am eagerly looking forward to hearing from you more about your thoughts on these! :-)
hmmm,..to your first question I would say that may be because of a convention it started from the upper right hand quadrant to go to left and then down. If you go by the way quadrants were made, they were basically classified to decide the angles, so that with the movement from upper right to left, the angle increases. And what do you get if your join all the angles? - A circle. Again, if you delve deeper into this you may find that it might have nothing much complicated in it, except for the human mind and habits.
ReplyDeleteMost of the humans are right handed..and how do they draw a circle? :)...ofcourse, in anti-clockwise direction starting from the invisible upper right quadrant to go the same way, you see the classification follows. (at least most right handed people do). So, I think because of that quadrants got their classifications in that convention and way, to follow the way, the person who invented them, could draw a circle. :).Of course you can reverse your ways of making things, but then you'd have to find enough people who can draw circle from lower left quadrant and make it perfect..!! :D. This way they may be able to support your way of classifying quadrants.
Regarding the case of ceiling fans, I guess you can rotate in either direction. It depends on the way their blades are designed. If a fan is designed in a way to push air while rotating anti-clockwise, then the motor would be designed to do that, else otherwise.
Lol..I guess I have been talking like this after ages...
Jesus! You sound just like my teacher in college! When I ask her questions which she doesn’t have answers, she would say “see…for the past 1000 years, people have been doing like this and that’s why we also do it this way”!
ReplyDeleteDon’t know why I am really impressed with your reply but you sounded perfectly normal and sensible. Is that what you meant with your last statement that it’s been some time since you have talked like this? :-P ;-)