Scientists from the Universities of Sheffield and Warwick found a protein in chicken ovaries that speeds up the process of creating the hard shell of an egg, proving that the chicken came first. The protein, ovocledidine-17, accelerates eggshell production in chickens.
In a major breakthrough for the world’s dedicated puzzle-solvers, British scientists may have answered the age-old question: which came first, the chicken or the egg? In a scientific paper published in 2010, researchers from the Universities of Sheffield and Warwick found a protein in chicken ovaries that speeds up the process of creating the hard shell of an egg. And since it was found inside the chicken, the chicken had to come first, they reasoned. “It was long suspected that the egg came first, but now we have scientific evidence to show that the chicken actually came first,” said Dr Colin Freeman, from the Department of Materials Engineering at the University of Sheffield.
Next question: why did the chicken cross the road?:
The paper, entitled Structural control of crystal nuclei by an eggshell protein, focused on a protein called ovocledidine-17.
Using a supercomputer, the researchers were able to simulate for the first time the process of biomineralisation, the production of minerals or solid materials within organisms.
The results indicate that ovocledidine-17 accelerates eggshell production in chickens, so that within 24 hours an egg is ready to be laid.
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