fic snippet: Take 2 Every 4 to 6 Hours [sga au]

[bratfarrar]

More of John and Rodney in college. Because I am sick and can't bring myself to concentrate on homework for more than about ten minutes at a time. (I mean--sea urchins. Not the most interesting topic, y'know?)

Comments

[misskatieleigh]

*meep*

[bratfarrar]

*purr*

thanks. ^_^

[bratfarrar]

Your icon makes me smile. ^_^

*spooges*

"...the experiments offer us the first exact indications about the role of the nucleus in ontogenesis by the certainty with which they permit us to ascribe the disturbances of development exclusively to the chromosomes. It appears that the initial steps up to the blastula stage are independent of the quality of nuclear substance, even though it is essential that the nuclear substance be of a kind capable of existing in the egg."

Er, sorry.

What Boveri is claiming in this paper--if I understand correctly--is that fertilizing eggs twice screws up the distribution of the substance that forms chromosomes, so the eggs can't develop properly into baby sea urchins. It's not the number of chromosomes that matters (within certain limits, obviously), it's how they're distributed among the dividing cells. As long as that distribution is unaffected, you can mess around with the eggs in other ways and still get (more or less) normal sea urchins.

I think.

[bratfarrar]

0_o That animation bit is a little freaky.

Boveri's question is why does polyspermy (which really is a fun word to say--as are most words with two Y's in them, I find) result in non-viable embryos. I think. And his conclusion is that it's all about the chromosomes.

I always want to spell "chromosome" with an N. Chromosones. Apparently that's wrong.

[sholio]

Awww. That's neat!

[bratfarrar]

Thanks!

[gaffsie]

!!! BOYS! *cue incoherent gibbering*

[bratfarrar]

They are rather gibberish-inducing, aren't they. *regards them fondly*

[kriadydragon]

Aww. *Hugs them*

[bratfarrar]

*beams at you*