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From: fargo@pawl.rpi.edu (Irwin M. Fargo)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: How do twins work?
Message-ID: <1683@rpi.edu>
Date: 25 Apr 89 04:01:58 GMT
References: <3791@silver.bacs.indiana.edu> <8272@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
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In article <8272@boulder.Colorado.EDU> pell@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Anthony Pelletier) writes:
>I think you are being a bit unfair in your reading of what I wrote.
>You point out, for example, that the possible scenario of a polar-body
>geting fertilized is "not likely."  I believe
>the term I used in my posting was "not outside the realm of the possible."
>Does that really sound to you that I was suggesting it was likely? 

This is sci.bio, not sci.philosophy.meta.  Please keep semanticism in the
right newsgroup.  Most USENET readers don't need every word explicity de-
fined.

>separation.  In mammals, the polar-bodies are not extruded until after
>fertilization (hence the name).  As you said, it is not very likely, but
>"it is not outside the realm of the possible" and "very occasionally"
>(god, how many qualifiers do you want?!) a polar body can get fertilized.

The way I learned it ("Biology" by Helena Curtis), after meiosis II, the egg
is the only cell to survive and ever pass into the fallopian (sp?) tube.  To
my knowledge, the polar bodies die and are later ingested by white blood
cells.  Plus, I tend to agree that even if a polar body was fertilized, there
would not be enough cytoplasmic material for the zygote to survive long enough
for implantation on the uterin lining.

>The reason I brought this up was to contradict the "very impossible" phrase
>used by Ethan/Irwin.  It is common for beginers in biology to think we really
>know what is possible and what is not. This is a habit that needs to be broken.


I don't know how you rank beginners, but I did take my college level biology
course, and thus, must draw on that as my body of knowledge.  And it is YOUR
semantics in taking my phrase "very impossible" too literally, not my presump-
tion of biological knowledge.  Anyways, I don't think the basic ideas in bi-
ology are going to change according to how much you know, just as 2 + 2 will
still equal 4 even if I know how to do double integrals!

Thank you and happy hunting!             Actually: Ethan M. Young
  ____ [> SB <]    "Travel IS life"      Internet: fargo@pawl.rpi.edu
 /__   -=>??<=-       - Irwin M. Fargo   Bitnet (??): usergac0@rpitsmts.bitnet
/   ARGO : 3000 years of regression from the year 4990