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Asked by lukecooperexplodes to Cesar, Emily, Jamie, Kate, Philippa on 13 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by chloehepburn, 15as, em210198, legend123.
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Emily Robinson answered on 12 Jun 2011:
Now this question has always puzzled me! When I think about it I go round and round in circles thinking ‘it must be the chicken’ as otherwise what laid the first egg…. but then I think ‘it must be the egg’ as where did the chicken come from that laid the first egg!! So I had a look into this and it seems that some scientists from the University of Warwick and the University of Sheffield now think that it is the chicken that came first due to a protein called OC-17 in the chicken which is needed to harden the shell of an egg. I don’t think that this fully answers the question, as how was the chicken born/hatched that first had this protein?… but it is another piece of evidence in a long standing puzzle!
Science is like this…a new discovery sometimes doesn’t completely answer the BIG question but it may give more evidence to a particular theory. And sometimes a result just shows you that there are more questions you need to ask!
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Philippa Demonte answered on 12 Jun 2011:
@lukecooperexplodes @chloehepburn @15as Which came first: the chicken or the egg? I think neither came first. I think the chicken evolved from a fish (but don’t quote me on that – I’m a geophysicist, not a biologist / zoologist)
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Cesar Lopez-Monsalvo answered on 12 Jun 2011:
This is a very long standing question! I will not attempt a biological answer. I will try something else…
There are many problems in mathematics, science and even philosophy which have no answer, or at least not a definite one. So lets see how does it work. There are two claims:
“Every chicken comes from an egg”,
and
“Every egg is laid by a chicken”.
The order for those TRUE claims does not matter but, … that is exactly what we are asking!
This is not exactly a PARADOX but it is something which people call SELF-REFERENTIAL, which is something that in order to be true it refers to the truthfulness of itself!…This sounds kind of complicated but it is quite “fun” to think about.
Take the example of a real paradox. It is called (I do not know if that is the real name) “Zeus and the rock”. Ask yourself, your teacher, your parents or anybody the following question:
“If Zeus CAN DO EVERYTHING, can he make a rock so heavy that he CANNOT lift?”
Try it!
There are many more examples of this. The answer seems to go in circles every time. Something similar happens to computer programs as well. So when your computer seems to be running slower than usual, or even comes to a complete “freeze”, it is very likely that it got stuck into one of this loops.
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Kate Clancy answered on 13 Jun 2011:
Well, my specialty is in human evolution, not animals more generally… but, I am going to have to go with the egg. The reason for that is, the ability to lay eggs evolved way before chickens evolved. And the question isn’t “which came first, the chicken or the chicken egg,” now is it? 😉
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Jamie Gallagher answered on 13 Jun 2011:
If I had to pick I would also say egg. And similar tangent, think about this. Women are born with all their eggs already. Those little cells grow early and you never make any more. So the little egg you came from was created when your gran got pregnant.
So the egg arrived in some form or another and then somewhere down the line the chicken blinked into existence.
Comments
ttmadman2000 commented on :
Chhhhiiickkkeennnnn
Kate commented on :
Yes, great point Jamie! In fact, there’s a whole field growing around that exact thing – the fact that your gran may have a role to play in how your own biology turns out. It’s called “developmental origins” and it’s super interesting.