Right on time for Easter one of the biggest questions has been finally answered: Who came first, the chicken or the egg?
Researchers from Sheffield and Warwick universities found out that the eggshell needs a specific protein to form. And this protein in only found in a chicken’s ovaries. In simple words: If you don’t have a chicken you can’t form an egg. The egg can only exist by being created inside a chicken.
The eggshell protein we are talking about (called ovocledidin-17 or OC-17) is responsible for speeding up the development of a hard eggshell. Only with a hard eggshell the yolk, fluids and the inside growing chicken can be well protected from the outside.
Dr. Colin Freeman, who published together with Professor John Harding the paper “Structural Control of Crystal Nuclei by an Eggshell Protein” told the Daily Mail: “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 protein had been identified before and it was linked to egg formation, but by examining it closely we have been able to see how it controls the process.”
“Nature had found innovative solutions that work for all kinds of problems in materials science and technology” Professor Harding said, “we can learn a lot from them.”
But now I still have one last question: Who came first, the Easter egg or the Easter bunny? Happy Easter to everybody!
