Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!ames!oliveb!sun!falk From: falk@sun.uucp (Ed Falk) Newsgroups: sci.bio,talk.origins Subject: Re: Evolution vs.(?) Creationism Message-ID: <10519@sun.uucp> Date: Wed, 17-Dec-86 00:27:34 EST Article-I.D.: sun.10519 Posted: Wed Dec 17 00:27:34 1986 Date-Received: Thu, 18-Dec-86 00:03:57 EST References: <2849@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <1261@cybvax0.UUCP> <9@bcsaic.UUCP> <1075@husc2.UUCP> Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc. Lines: 39 Xref: mnetor sci.bio:67 talk.origins:223 > > I read one author who, noting that many women have given birth without > > ever apparently having had sex, thinks that virgin birth is possible in > > humans. > > This seems very unlikely, because artificial stimulation of a > mammalian egg causes development to occur only up to a certain point > (gastrulation I think), after which it always becomes abnormal, and cannot > proceed further. As far as I know, the reason for this is not known; it works > fine in many other organisms, and even occurs naturally in some (such as some > lizards, which are near the same evolutionary path as mammals, although not as > advanced (mammals evolved from reptiles)). > There is a method called "parthogenesis" in which an egg cell is produced with a full complement of chromosomes (instead of just 23). The resulting child would be a full genetic clone of the mother. Some sci-fi stories have been written that deal with a world where all the men have died off and the women are perpetuating the race this way. Biologists have figured that the odds of this happening spontaneously vary from one in several hundred thousand to one in several hundred million. About two decades ago, the British medical journal "Lancet" conducted a survey to see if such a case could be found. Testing is theoretically easy: just do tissue cultures between mother and daughter and look for signs of rejection. At any rate, they got about fifty responses, most of whom could be weeded out because they had misunderstood the article. But when all the testing was done, they had one mother-daughter pair that could not be told apart genetically. It doesn't *prove* that parthogenesis occurred, but they couldn't find any other explanation. Sorry if the details are hazy, it's been a long time since I read about this. -- -ed falk, sun microsystems terrorist, cryptography, DES, drugs, cipher, secret, decode, NSA, CIA, NRO. (The above is food for the NSA line eater.)