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Which came first, the chicken, or the egg? Thanks to a brave group of British researchers, the age-old question finally has an answer.

It's easy to see how the question would puzzle people. Chickens are born from eggs, so surely the egg formed first, right? But wait, chickens lay eggs, so in order for there to be an egg, a chicken had to lay it. If you ponder the question long enough, your brain starts doing little pinwheels in your skull. It's quite disturbing.

But no more! Now Dr. Colin Freeman from Sheffield University, working with colleagues from Warwick University, believes the code has been cracked.

"It had long been suspected that the egg came first but now we have the scientific proof that shows that in fact the chicken came first."

Sonofabitch! I had my money down for the egg. That's $20 I'll never see again.

It turns out there's a protein, ovocledidin-17 (OC-17), that's only found in the ovaries of chickens that is crucial to the formation of an egg's shell.

OC-17 coverts calcium carbonate into calcite crystals, which in turn form the shell. No OC-17, no shell, and since OC-17 is only found in chicken ovaries, the chicken had to have come first.

The protien had been identified before, but through the use of a super computer called HECToR, scientists were able to zoom in for a closer look at egg formation, giving them the answer they'd been seeking for oh so long.

This is a sad day for members of Team Egg. The t-shirts will be relegated to dusty closet shelves and Goodwill bins, never to be seen again, until they become geek chic some 30 years from now.

Sad for Team Egg, but great for science, says Professor John Harding of Sheffield University.

"Understanding how chickens make shells is fascinating in itself but can also give clues towards designing new materials."

Cant believe proffesors from a University are spending time on a question like this. lol.

Cant believe proffesors from a University are spending time on a question like this. lol.

Clearly you have misconceptions regarding what professors at Universities do then.

Allow me to educate:
1. Publish papers to gain recognition in their field thus gaining recognition for their department thereby gaining recognition for the university they work for, which, through PR magic, turns recognition into endowment.

And in the far far far far distant second,
2. Teach students

If you're a professor, you gotta publish. If the paper you publish gets out of your field of study's journals and onto widely distributed press, all the better. The publish or perish joke is true.

Btw, don't let this make anyone looking forward to college jaded. If you pretend hard enough and go to enough office hours, you'll actually believe you're forming a bond with your favorite professor. If you do it often enough, they'll believe it too.

The chicken came first, not the egg

Meh. I don't believe it!

Its not a matter of belief now, only denial.

It turns out there's a protein, ovocledidin-17 (OC-17), that's only found in the ovaries of chickens that is crucial to the formation of an egg's shell.

BUT of course amphibians were first.

Is this one more thing of those researchers who said that 100% of people who smoke will die?

LoL! I'm sure 100% of people who have sex will die. I'm sure 100% of people that breathe will die. I'm pretty sure we all die