Top 5 Virgin Births with Unlucky Deaths

Virgin births are rightly met with curiosity and awe, but for some, ‘miraculous’ beginnings have met with ill-fated ends.  Producing a virgin birth is difficult process. The first part – ignoring males – is easy. But the mother’s body then has to subvert the egg-making process, tricking developing eggs to think they’ve been fertilised.  Without fresh genetic material, developing embryos can suffer the effects of inbreeding, so most don’t survive. Which makes it such a shame that when they do, they have sometimes met with premature endings. Here are my Top 5 Unlucky Deaths for Virgin Births….

A happy ending for orphan genes

This New Year as the weather turns chilly, spare a thought for the orphan genes. Around a third of all genes in all genomes have no relatives – no parents, no family tree, no evolutionary past. They’ve had a tough time of it and they’re struggling for recognition.

Orphan genes are genes found in just one species (or a group of closely related species) and nowhere else – the jellyfish gene that guides the formation of stinging cells, the polar cod gene that prevents the fish from freezing, and the fruit fly gene that helps it to fly. They may even have stimulated the evolution of human brain. They’re innovative and they’re everywhere – orphan genes have been found in all of the genomes examined so far.

Chickens Shun Specs in Favour of Sweaters

Today I learned spectacular news! Whilst women in the 1940s were busy basting their legs with Paxo, chickens did their bit for the war effort by wearing glasses.

The small but dapper specs, which were mass produced and sold throughout America from the beginning of the twentieth century, were designed to aid avian well-being (Chicken Fact Number 1!).