SCIENCE!
A History of the Life Sciences (Revised and Expanded Third Edition) by Lois Magner
This is a random-number-generator read--a while back I read Carl Zimmer's Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain and How It Changed the World. It was an excellent book, and it made me curious about the development of scientific and biological knowledge, so when (the first, 1979 edition of) A History of the Life Sciences was about to be discarded from my former-workplace library, I grabbed it and brought it home.
None of which is really relevant to my favorite few sentences in the book, which occur in slightly different form at the link above than in my copy.
To confirm his hypothesis that fertilization was external and that contact with semen was necessary for development, Spallanzani designed special tight-fitting taffeta overalls for his frogs. Despite these extraordinary costumes, the frogs still attempted to mate. The females discharged eggs, but none of them developed. When some of the eggs were mixed with semen that had been retained by the little trousers, normal development took place.
The best part is that, as iuliamentis pointed out, there's no way Spallanzani himself sewed the tiny, specially-designed, perfectly-tailored taffeta frog trousers. Oh no, he probably gave his scientifically-developed pattern and a yard of taffeta to Signora Spallanzani, who must have wondered, not for the first time, why she married a natural philosopher. But she made the trousers, and so biological knowledge was advanced.
SCIENCE! It works, even when it consists of tiny taffeta overalls for frogs.
This is a random-number-generator read--a while back I read Carl Zimmer's Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain and How It Changed the World. It was an excellent book, and it made me curious about the development of scientific and biological knowledge, so when (the first, 1979 edition of) A History of the Life Sciences was about to be discarded from my former-workplace library, I grabbed it and brought it home.
None of which is really relevant to my favorite few sentences in the book, which occur in slightly different form at the link above than in my copy.
To confirm his hypothesis that fertilization was external and that contact with semen was necessary for development, Spallanzani designed special tight-fitting taffeta overalls for his frogs. Despite these extraordinary costumes, the frogs still attempted to mate. The females discharged eggs, but none of them developed. When some of the eggs were mixed with semen that had been retained by the little trousers, normal development took place.
The best part is that, as iuliamentis pointed out, there's no way Spallanzani himself sewed the tiny, specially-designed, perfectly-tailored taffeta frog trousers. Oh no, he probably gave his scientifically-developed pattern and a yard of taffeta to Signora Spallanzani, who must have wondered, not for the first time, why she married a natural philosopher. But she made the trousers, and so biological knowledge was advanced.
SCIENCE! It works, even when it consists of tiny taffeta overalls for frogs.