One of the most important breakthroughs in the history of science has happened at last. Scientists have finally solved the riddle of which came first, the chicken or the egg? That's certainly the claim made by many newspapers around the world. However, what is the real story behind those headlines?
The Growth of the Story
The Sun quickly picked up on the story telling the world "Official: Chicks before eggs" and that "boffins have revealed the chicken DID come before the egg after all". The explanation that "Scientists cracked the age-old puzzle after discovering the formation of eggs is only possible thanks to a protein found in chicken's ovaries" and "that means eggs have to be formed in chickens".
On the 14th July 2010 the UK's Daily Mail revealed that "They've cracked it at last! The chicken DID come before the egg" and that "Scientists yesterday claimed to have cracked the riddle of whether the chicken or the egg came first". It quotes Dr Colin Freeman, from Sheffield University's Department of Engineering Materials, as saying "'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".
Pretty soon the story had spread around the world with the USA's Fox News saying that "Scientists cracked the puzzle after discovering that the formation of eggs is possible only thanks to a protein found in chicken's ovaries. That means eggs have to be formed in chickens first" and Australia's Herald Sun saying that "researchers have found that a protein called ovocleidin (OC-17) is crucial in the formulation of eggshells, and it is produced in the pregnant hen's ovaries" and "therefore, the answer to the conundrum must be that the chicken came first".
The Story Evolves
Once the story had been around the world at least once it started to evolve. Associated Content agreed that "British researchers cracked the mystery recently at Sheffield and Warwick universities according to a newspaper called the 'Daily Mail'. They described their findings in a paper called the 'Structural Control of Crystal Nuclei by an Eggshell Protein'", however they then go on to explain that "this information helps to verify the Genesis account of God creating the living things on the earth". Damego declares that "the answer was there all the time: Genesis 1:21".
The Actual Story
It is, therefore, time to look back at the source of this growing urban legend. That source is a Universities of Sheffield news release on the 12th July 2010. It says "Researchers at the Universities of Sheffield and Warwick have applied computing power to provide an insight into egg shell formation. The work may also give a partial answer to the age old question 'what came first the chicken or the egg?'". They go on to explain that "the researchers found that 'chicken', or at least a particular chicken protein, came first in this context.
There is however a further twist in that this particular chicken protein turns out to come both first and last. That neat trick it performs provides new insights into control of crystal growth which is key to egg shell production" and that "researchers had long known that a chicken eggshell protein called ovocledidin-17 (OC-17) must play some role in egg shell formation. The protein is found only in the mineral region of the egg (the hard part of the shell) and lab bench results showed that it appeared to influence the transformation of (CaCo3) into calcite crystals. It remained unclear how this process could be used for forming an eggshell".
It ends with a quote from Professor Harding, from the University of Sheffield´s Department of Engineering Materials, "Understanding how chickens make eggshells is fascinating in itself but can also give clues towards designing new materials and processes. Nature has found innovative solutions that work for all kinds of problems in materials science and technology – we can learn a lot from them."
The moral of this story? Don't ever put a pun in a news release.
Mark Alexander Bain - Mark Alexander Bain is a writer, Mo Bro and consultant for all aspects of software development at dsquared. He has also written regularly ...
