information. What questions will you have regarding this part?
– Miss Fox? – the voice of one of the students was heard.
– Yes?
– What happens if several sperm get into one egg? How will the nuclei behave then?
– Good question. The fact is that to penetrate the egg, it is not enough for the sperm to reach it. The egg is surrounded by a membrane that must dissolve so that sperm can penetrate. And here is the most interesting thing. For this shell to dissolve, the egg must be surrounded by at least three hundred million sperm, because only in this quantity can they secrete a sufficient amount of the enzyme hyaluronidase and protease, which will be able to dissolve the shell of the egg. And when the sperm penetrates inside, the membrane begins to thicken, which does not allow other sperm to penetrate inside.
The voice of a girl from the back row was heard in the hall:
– This is love. One and only for life.
There was laughter in the room, and the teacher involuntarily joined in.
– What kind of love is there? – objected the guy from the previous row. – She let him into her bungalow, and then locked the door. Darling, it’s called dictatorial matriarchy.
The laughter became stronger and died down only at the moment the bell rang.
Dr. Kayla Fox outlined an assignment that would need to be completed for the next class, after which the students began to disperse, emptying the lecture hall.
This was the last lesson. Kayla gathered all her study materials into her bag and hurried to the parking lot. As she walked down the stairs, she thought about the garish message she’d read on one of her students’ T-shirts. The caption read: «CHOCOLATE AND MILK MIX». Below the inscription was the face of a dark-skinned boy. Then Kayla remembered a joke. It was told in the morning by the presenter of one of the radio stations when he announced the rating of the most unfunny and ridiculous jokes. He literally said the following: «Why should scientists all over the world rack their brains trying to revive animals that have long been extinct? Isn’t it better to take a roundabout route? Take a motherfucker, cross it with an orthodontist, and you get a mastodon».
On the way back, Kayla stopped at a supermarket. Approaching the checkout, she stood in line behind a young married couple with a boy of about three years old. The child did not attract any attention to himself until he dropped the toy car from his hands. Kayla removed her hands from the cart to pick up the toy. While handing it over to the boy, she accidentally glanced at the cover of a popular science magazine that comes out every week. This issue was dedicated to modern genetic diseases, as well as pathologies that were previously unknown to medicine. Kayla began scrolling, her eyes scanning the article headlines. When it was her turn, Kayla placed all the goods on the checkout counter and continued to scan the pages while the cashier punched the barcodes. The magazine talked about the identification of new genetic diseases. In Melbourne doctors were faced with an unprecedented case. The fetus had to be cut out of the woman’s belly in the sixth month. The reason for this decision was the fact that the fetus had a visible tail. Something similar occurs in the early stages of pregnancy. But in this case, the tail not only did not disappear, but grew at a faster rate than the fetus itself. The doctors were especially shocked by the fact that, having terminated the pregnancy, they did not kill the fetus, and after removing it, certain sounds began to come from the mouth. And there were a lot of such articles.
– Will you take it?
Kayla asked without taking her eyes off page fourteen:
– What?
– Will you take the magazine? – the cashier repeated.
– Oh, yes – Kayla answered, handing over the magazine in order to punch the barcode.
The journey from the supermarket to home usually took eighteen to twenty minutes without traffic jams. This time Kayla arrived in thirteen.
The first thing she did was take out all the food that needed to be placed in the refrigerator. Kayla put everything else aside for later, leaving the bags and work bag lying in the kitchen. To save time, she decided not to change clothes. Once in her home laboratory, into which she had converted one of the bedrooms, Kayla put on medical gloves, and then began studying new samples of her months-long experiment. She took out a chicken egg from the incubator. Before starting work, Kayla turned on the voice recorder on her phone:
– Study of sample number «forty-five». Twelve days have passed since fertilization. The appearance of the egg is healthy. There are no damage or defects observed on the shell around the hole through which fertilization took place. I’m autopsying the egg.
Kayla lightly tapped the shell with a scalpel and poured the contents into a plastic container.
– As in all previous attempts, the yolk and white are missing. Instead, there is the same liquid watery consistency, which in some places is yellow in color, and most of it is dark gray. There is a fetus inside.
Kayla picked up the creature with tweezers, which was covered in mucus from the environment in which it lived. She transferred it to a wide glass container and continued the audio recording:
– The fetus has a flesh-colored pale pink tint. The sample size is about four to five centimeters in length and up to one centimeter in width. The shape is different from most of the previous ones. At one end there is a black bulge, similar to an eye. In the middle of the body along the edges there is something resembling limbs that have not yet had time to ripen and separate. There is also a gap visible at the opposite end, the length of which is about one and a half centimeters. The sample makes slight movements in the area of the black bulge. Compared to previous attempts, this sample is more similar to a human embryo. Perhaps the higher temperature at which the egg was stored had an effect.
Kayla fixed the moving creature with tweezers, took the scalpel with her other hand and said, without taking her eyes off the twitching limb:
– I’m performing an autopsy.
Dr. Fox made a longitudinal incision, after which she took blood samples using a syringe, which she immediately placed on a slide glass and covered with a second one, causing the drop to expand. Kayla placed the glass with the samples under the microscope and began to examine the contents. At that moment the intercom rang.
With a feeling of irritation and impatience, after the seventh ring, Kayla still went into the hallway.
– Who’s there?
– Hello. Dr. Fox?
– Yes.
– My name is Stephen Frost. I am looking for a broad-spectrum specialist in the field of biology. You were recommended by our mutual friend, Miguel Guimaraes. He said that you have considerable experience in hydrobiology, molecular and microbiology. In this regard, I have a business proposal for you. Will I bother you too much if I take a few minutes?
A grimace of impatience appeared on Kayla’s face. She answered, trying to imitate politeness in her voice as much as possible:
– Not at all. Come on in.
Pressing the button on the intercom body, Kayla hurried to close
