1,700 year old egg never broke
atlasobscura.com

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98 points

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demadog

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5 days ago

35 comments

fifilura ・ 2 days ago

I guess they are scientists and know better than me, but my bet is that is will just contain sludge.

Egg shells are more organic than you expect.

This is why you use stuff like waterglass https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_silicate to seal them.

  • mulmen ・ 2 days ago

    > Egg shells are more organic than you expect.

    I expect them to be completely organic. What else would they be?

    • parl_match ・ a day ago

      namespace collision: to the layperson, it's organic because it came from an organism. from a chemical perspective, it's considered non-organic

      i admit i read ops comment and was confused for a second until it clicked. they're mostly calcium carbonate

      • mulmen ・ a day ago

        I wondered about that but then in context wasn’t sure of the relevance. I’m aware that even fresh eggs are somewhat porous and wouldn’t expect the contents to last beyond a week before beginning to break down.

    • foxyv ・ a day ago

      Calcium carbonate. So a salt I guess?

nyanpasu64 ・ 2 days ago

The eggshell looks like a century egg, but as mentioned by the comment the contents may have decomposed if the mud wasn't alkaline like the century egg production process.

  • phinnaeus ・ a day ago

    It’s a 17 century egg, to be precise

mseepgood ・ 2 days ago

Of course they are going to break it.

shrx ・ 2 days ago

I wonder why they don't put it in a CT scanner first before breaking it.

  • shrx ・ 2 days ago

    Apologies, apparently I missed this part in the article since the large ad banner immediately next to it distracted me.

    • coldpie ・ a day ago

      Install an ad blocker, friend!

      • efilife ・ a day ago

        ublock origin to be specific

  • Cyphase ・ 2 days ago

    > A Micro CT scan showed that this ancient egg is still full of liquid.

    > “Researchers are planning to carefully extract the liquid to better study it,” stated Edward Biddulph, Senior Project Manager, who oversaw the site excavation. “It’s a controlled process similar to egg blowing, where a tiny hole is made in its shell after creating a 3D model.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_microtomography

    • metalman ・ a day ago

      I think it is a mistake not to cut the top off the egg and just look inside as ancient egg shell has no value after it drys out and the visual information may be unique,so off with its top, and then take samples of the "liquid" and the inner shell lining, if it's present, and then see if there is any remaining structure of an embryo or the egg as laid.

fsckboy ・ 2 days ago

>Scientists are eager to use DNA testing to establish the species that laid the egg

how much DNA is in an egg, isn't it just a single cell with a single nucleus? and if unfertilized is haploid?

  • fbn79 ・ 2 days ago

    In addition to the single nucleus the egg can contains trace of DNA from the mother

ars ・ 2 days ago

I think they should not pierce it, but instead leave it for future humans to study.

  • teruakohatu ・ 2 days ago

    Science funding requires doing something. Nobody funds you to not do something.

    Regardless of getting funding, I don't see why our level of technology is not adequate to study an egg.

    • sdwr ・ 2 hours ago

      It might be the only 1700 year old egg in the world. Surely the prudent thing to do is wait some fraction of its age (200 years?) and reevaluate. What are the chances that, out of all of history, now is the best time to open it?

  • yumraj ・ a day ago

    Depending on how you look at it, the ones studying it are future humans.

  • creatonez ・ a day ago

    Don't worry, I'll find another one

robofanatic ・ 2 days ago

Story of an egg that never hatched.

anshumankmr ・ 2 days ago

I dare them to make an omelette wit that.

  • foreigner ・ 2 days ago

    Fry it up with bog butter!

  • a3w ・ 2 days ago

    Can't make science without breaking an egg!

knighthack ・ a day ago

I'm willing to bet there's a dragon in that egg.

kubb ・ 2 days ago

[flagged]

  • speerer ・ 2 days ago

    What's your definition of a scientist?

    I wonder if many of history's greatest scientists might fail to meet it.

  • viciousvoxel ・ 2 days ago

    This is actually my wife's job/area of research, except typically they use the eggshell proteins to determine taxonomy. It's extremely rare that DNA survives in these types of samples but the proteins are preserved in the eggshell's mineral matrix.

  • jessekv ・ 2 days ago

    "Scientist" is cool, but personally I would call myself a "forensic archeologist" if I had this gig.

    • viciousvoxel ・ 2 days ago

      It's usually just called archaeology or perhaps biomolecular archaeology. Forensic archaeology is a bit different, and it usually pertains to humans and their crimes.

slow123_ ・ 2 days ago

duke dennis must’ve saved the egg for breakfast but forgot about it loll