We really wanted to see what was going on with the germinal disc of the chicken to know more about how it gets SO MANY cells by the time it hatches; however, it just wasn't possible due to the nature of the chicken's egg shell. But since a zebrafish (related phenomenon) can be compared to a chicken (we have seen them develop fairly similarly despite being fish and birds).
Over the course of three videos, we saw some interesting things:
1. All the fish seem to start as a single cell.
2. Each of those cells seems to grow and then split into two.
3. Each of the fish ends up with so many cells, we couldn't even keep track of the "splitting," which we mathematically saw as this unique doubling pattern--1 cell becomes 2 cells, 2 cells becomes 4 cells, 4 cells become 8 cells, and so forth.
4. There was something else in the egg with the egg, which we are thinking is the yolk and white, like the chicken.
This is all making us think that no matter the organism, there is some type of food molecules for the cells to consume. But is this true for every organism? Even those that don't develop in an egg? Is this how we make new cells ourselves, especially since we've been known to lose some (like when we scrap ourselves) or even when we grow taller (like in adolescence)?
1. All the fish seem to start as a single cell.
2. Each of those cells seems to grow and then split into two.
3. Each of the fish ends up with so many cells, we couldn't even keep track of the "splitting," which we mathematically saw as this unique doubling pattern--1 cell becomes 2 cells, 2 cells becomes 4 cells, 4 cells become 8 cells, and so forth.
4. There was something else in the egg with the egg, which we are thinking is the yolk and white, like the chicken.
This is all making us think that no matter the organism, there is some type of food molecules for the cells to consume. But is this true for every organism? Even those that don't develop in an egg? Is this how we make new cells ourselves, especially since we've been known to lose some (like when we scrap ourselves) or even when we grow taller (like in adolescence)?