ayermish@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (10/30/85)
From: Aimee Yermish <ayermish@ATHENA.MIT.EDU> Works ok with frogs (poke an egg with a platinum needle and it thinks it's been fertilized. Frogs were never known for their intelligence). However, you have to remember that an egg cell only has half the number of chromosomes as a normal somatic cell. Among other things, this would mean that all recessive mutations would be expressed. A good proportion of those are lethal. The sex of survivors is unclear. One Y chromosome guarantees maleness, but I believe that two X chromosomes are needed to produce a female. Also, what would happen when the haploid creature tried to produce more egg cells? Meiosis requires the existence of homologous chromosomes. The problem is that haploid individuals just don't occur in humans. Now yes, this is sf, but I just find the idea a little too far over towards the side of the unreasonable. If the author wanted to write a story about a planet inhabited entirely by female frogs with platinum needles. . . --Aimee ------------------ sorry about the previous aborted message, if it get to you. This is the one that should go in. --ay