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The bird’s egg has been called “a miracle of packaging.” Why?
Consider: While it appears solid, the
calcium-rich shell of a chicken egg can have up to 8,000 microscopic pores.
These allow oxygen to enter and carbon dioxide to escape—an important exchange
if the embryo is to breathe. Yet, the shell and several membranes prevent
bacteria from infecting the embryo. Albumen—a gelatinlike substance with a high
water content—gives the egg its ability to absorb shock.
Researchers would like to imitate the
structure of the egg to create products with better shock protection and a film
coating that could protect fruit from bacteria and parasites. However, “copying
nature is not so easy,” writes Marianne Botta Diener in Vivai magazine.
Attempts thus far, she notes, have not been environmentally friendly.
What do you think? Did this “miracle of
packaging,” the bird’s egg, come about by chance? Or was it designed?
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