Anton Coaker Blog
Member
Spider in mushy bees
I think it’s time for some unlikely biology stuff. The idea was triggered when I found a spider in the previous night’s saucepan. Nothing too odd about this you might think, and indeed, we quite like the odd spider about –as long as our Agnes isn’t involved, because the shrieks would awaken the dead- to the extent that Alison and I harbour a monster of an arachnid in the bedroom window. It lives behind a picture frame, and must be the terror of such small invertebrates that visit…quite possibly mice and small birds as well by its size. I don’t know how long spiders live, but this one has been extant for a couple of years and more and we’re quite fond of it. But, back to the saucepan dweller. This particular pot had the leftovers of the previous nights’ mushy peas, and spidey had somehow turned herself bright green in an exact match. I’ve got to presume that’s what happened, because she’d have stood out like a sore thumb elsewhere. I did check it out, and yes, some species can do this, although seemingly over several days, which begs the question how she knew what Alison was planning for tea days in advance.
Onwards then, and moving up the orders. News slithered out a couple of months ago of an elderly python in a US zoo laying a clutch of eggs. This was generally a happy surprise for all concerned, being Mrs Python was a venerable 62 years old, but mostly as she hadn’t seen a male snake for some 15 years. It’s known snakes can practise parthenogenesis – making babies without a Daddy- but this was still a shock. It’s known to naturally occur in several invertebrate species, as well various fish- notably some sharks-, amphibians, and reptiles. Lady Komodo dragons, for instance, are known to be able to lay fertile eggs without the assistance of a gentleman Komodo. A few bird species can achieve it, parthenogenesis being found in domesticated turkeys, chickens and pigeons. The results however aren’t always viable, or are not put together quite right. Male turkeys bred by parthenogenesis are recorded as having smaller testes than normal – which I find hardly surprising to say the least.
In mammals, the phenomena has only ever been recorded where scientists have been, er, ‘interfering’ – and we’re straight into a wholly questionable field of ethics here. It has been induced in mice, although the abnormality rate is pretty high, which probably says enough for me. But as ever, there’s boffins who want to tinker further. In essence, you’re talking about cloning – and it is technically possible… Dolly the sheep was a clone. In her instance, it’s achieved by removing the nucleus from an egg, and replacing it with a snippet of tissue from the animal you want cloned. Typically a bit of skin tissue I understand. The resulting embryo can then be implanted in a surrogate mother for normal gestation.
Now whether this is a sensible thing to do or not remains to be seen. Dolly the sheep didn’t have a very long life, and looked pretty hobbly from videos I saw…but then, she was a sheep, living in a fairly artificial environs, so I can’t say I’m surprised. There are already businesses stepping forward who will clone your favourite pooch-overseas- at around £38,000 a pop. I love my hounds, but not that much! However the trade inevitably leads to speculation as to how much someone might pay to replicate a human they dearly missed? It isn’t hard to imagine a scenario where, as they used to say, ‘money will find it’. Hmmm. Curiouser and curiouser said Alice.
And so, to close, I’ll relate a wholesome tale about human surrogacy gone wrong. A nice American lady kindly entered into an arrangement with a childless Chinese couple, where she’d cook their IVF embryo in her tummy for cash. And initially all went well. Indeed, a scan soon revealed she was carrying twins…everyone was delighted, and she was promised an extra $5000 for the bonus baby. And when they were duly delivered –out the sunroof- and handed over to the doting parents all seemed well. Until that is, the Chinese got suspicious about the differing appearance of these supposed twins. A dna test soon revealed that the surrogate had somehow, after implantation, managed to shed an egg of her own- the body usually stops doing this once it finds itself up the duff- and that this egg had been fertilised in the more accustomed manner. Unsurprisingly, lawyers quickly became involved in a big way, and when the American lady eventually- and expensively- recovered ‘her’ baby, she apparently advises fellow would-be surrogates against the incubation trade.
There…it’s all in the Morning News!
I think it’s time for some unlikely biology stuff. The idea was triggered when I found a spider in the previous night’s saucepan. Nothing too odd about this you might think, and indeed, we quite like the odd spider about –as long as our Agnes isn’t involved, because the shrieks would awaken the dead- to the extent that Alison and I harbour a monster of an arachnid in the bedroom window. It lives behind a picture frame, and must be the terror of such small invertebrates that visit…quite possibly mice and small birds as well by its size. I don’t know how long spiders live, but this one has been extant for a couple of years and more and we’re quite fond of it. But, back to the saucepan dweller. This particular pot had the leftovers of the previous nights’ mushy peas, and spidey had somehow turned herself bright green in an exact match. I’ve got to presume that’s what happened, because she’d have stood out like a sore thumb elsewhere. I did check it out, and yes, some species can do this, although seemingly over several days, which begs the question how she knew what Alison was planning for tea days in advance.
Onwards then, and moving up the orders. News slithered out a couple of months ago of an elderly python in a US zoo laying a clutch of eggs. This was generally a happy surprise for all concerned, being Mrs Python was a venerable 62 years old, but mostly as she hadn’t seen a male snake for some 15 years. It’s known snakes can practise parthenogenesis – making babies without a Daddy- but this was still a shock. It’s known to naturally occur in several invertebrate species, as well various fish- notably some sharks-, amphibians, and reptiles. Lady Komodo dragons, for instance, are known to be able to lay fertile eggs without the assistance of a gentleman Komodo. A few bird species can achieve it, parthenogenesis being found in domesticated turkeys, chickens and pigeons. The results however aren’t always viable, or are not put together quite right. Male turkeys bred by parthenogenesis are recorded as having smaller testes than normal – which I find hardly surprising to say the least.
In mammals, the phenomena has only ever been recorded where scientists have been, er, ‘interfering’ – and we’re straight into a wholly questionable field of ethics here. It has been induced in mice, although the abnormality rate is pretty high, which probably says enough for me. But as ever, there’s boffins who want to tinker further. In essence, you’re talking about cloning – and it is technically possible… Dolly the sheep was a clone. In her instance, it’s achieved by removing the nucleus from an egg, and replacing it with a snippet of tissue from the animal you want cloned. Typically a bit of skin tissue I understand. The resulting embryo can then be implanted in a surrogate mother for normal gestation.
Now whether this is a sensible thing to do or not remains to be seen. Dolly the sheep didn’t have a very long life, and looked pretty hobbly from videos I saw…but then, she was a sheep, living in a fairly artificial environs, so I can’t say I’m surprised. There are already businesses stepping forward who will clone your favourite pooch-overseas- at around £38,000 a pop. I love my hounds, but not that much! However the trade inevitably leads to speculation as to how much someone might pay to replicate a human they dearly missed? It isn’t hard to imagine a scenario where, as they used to say, ‘money will find it’. Hmmm. Curiouser and curiouser said Alice.
And so, to close, I’ll relate a wholesome tale about human surrogacy gone wrong. A nice American lady kindly entered into an arrangement with a childless Chinese couple, where she’d cook their IVF embryo in her tummy for cash. And initially all went well. Indeed, a scan soon revealed she was carrying twins…everyone was delighted, and she was promised an extra $5000 for the bonus baby. And when they were duly delivered –out the sunroof- and handed over to the doting parents all seemed well. Until that is, the Chinese got suspicious about the differing appearance of these supposed twins. A dna test soon revealed that the surrogate had somehow, after implantation, managed to shed an egg of her own- the body usually stops doing this once it finds itself up the duff- and that this egg had been fertilised in the more accustomed manner. Unsurprisingly, lawyers quickly became involved in a big way, and when the American lady eventually- and expensively- recovered ‘her’ baby, she apparently advises fellow would-be surrogates against the incubation trade.
There…it’s all in the Morning News!