IotD not used today
 

http://cellar.org/2004/pigsperm.jpg

http://de.news.yahoo.com/041207/3/4bun1.html

Online translation tools came up short on what the hell is really going on here. I imagine it's sperm collection. Google's translation service says the caption is "A Eber including its sperm with the cover act on leather phantom off (archives picture)". Whoa.

I prefer to understand what an image really is, before putting it on Iotd.

Mmm... Pig.

Pork?

looks like he needs to wipe his chin.

Looks more like artificial insemination, to me.

Voice of experience maybe?

:lol: Dave Attell's "Insomniac" on Comedy Central once showed the artificial insemination of a cow, actually.

WTF?

They are somehow encouraging the swine to mount the leather-covered block.

That's some trick.

(covering is a term used when livestock meet in sexual congress. I've usually heard it used with reference to horse breeding, as in the stallion covers the mare, but I guess pigs can have fancy terms applied to their actions as well.)

You'd think they'd have the back of the block looking more she-pig like. Maybe pigs are not that discriminating.

I also wonder if they have to expose the male pig to the scent of a female pig in estrus?

Ugh my eyes... :greenface :greenface

Oh, Joe? I got something for ya!


Disclaimer: inside joke. ;)

I just couldn't resist. Those who need to know, already get it and should be about ready to torch my house about now.

"The stallion is covering the mare?"

It sounds to me like a typically sexist term, with ladies once again getting the short end of the pork.

Here's my attempt at a line by line translation of <a href="http://de.news.yahoo.com/041207/3/4bumv.html"">the corresponding article</a>. Some parts might be a little fuzzy, because I'm not much of a biologist, and I took some liberties with the English diction:

<b>How the first sperm at the egg cell blocks competition</b>

US researchers have solved the puzzle of why eggcells are fertilized by just one spermcell. A key enzyme takes care of it, by making the cell wall (Zellhülle -- I like 'cyto-wrapper' better) impervious for all subsequent sperm.

When a sperm enters, the enzyme Udx1, escharotic hydrogen peroxide, is produced. This substance causes the eggwhites and the cell wall to jointly coalesce into a firm protective coating, says Brown University. The process takes only five minutes.

Julian Wong (heh, heh) and his team have attained their insights by experimenting with sea urchin egg cells. Indeed, researchers have known for a while that hydrogen peroxide plays a big roll in the construction of a protective coating. But up until now it was unclear how the substance was produced or controlled. The researcher presented his finding in a trade journal.



I'm really not clear where the pig comes into it at all.

From behind. :D

Besides, that's a much more interesting visual aid than a drawing with a circle and a little squiggly thing next to it.

I'd hate to be the guy in the lab coat who seems to be, um, helping.

Oh i don't know , he looks "in-to-it " ;)