In Case You Were Wondering

If this has been a philosophical question that you might have pondered at least once in your life, they now have the answer.

CNN.com - Chicken and�egg�debate unscrambled - May 26, 2006: "Now a team made up of a geneticist, philosopher and chicken farmer claim to have found an answer. It was the egg.

Put simply, the reason is down to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal's life.

Therefore the first bird that evolved into what we would call a chicken, probably in prehistoric times, must have first existed as an embryo inside an egg.

Professor John Brookfield, a specialist in evolutionary genetics at the University of Nottingham, told the UK Press Association the pecking order was clear.

The living organism inside the eggshell would have had the same DNA as the chicken it would develop into, he said.

'Therefore, the first living thing which we could say unequivocally was a member of the species would be this first egg,' he added. 'So, I would conclude that the egg came first.'

The same conclusion was reached by his fellow 'eggsperts' Professor David Papineau, of King's College London, and poultry farmer Charles Bourns."

I wonder how many of these guys are Rhodes Scholars? Just a bit of useless information to start your day.

Tags: chicken or the egg, rhodes scholars, philosophy