That, my friend, is what you and I and everyone else in this world started out as: the human oocyte. Dr. Jacques Donnez at the Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels, Belgium, was carrying out a partial hysterectomy on a45-year-old woman when she ovulated.
Link - via metafilter
I didn't think it was that big before fertilization!
To answer Parker's questions:
The egg is at the center of that yellow mass. It is big when compared to other cells, but not that large.
The surgeon likely uses a camera for the procedure. He might even have a video of the entire ovulation.
Isnt an egg the largest cell in a human body
Please
Catholic University? Human reproduction?
as the song goes "There may be trouble ahead"
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7447942.stm
Uh, no, my friend. None of us "starts out" as an oocyte, because a mere human ovum is not a human being. When the ovum is fertilized by a sperm (i.e., at conception), THAT is when "you and I and everyone else in this world start out" (and, by the way, begin to have the right to life).
I was sad to see that some people were troubled/"grossed out" by the harmless photos, but I was even more sad to see that no one corrected the only truly disgusting thing in this thread -- the ignorant, anti-Catholic comments made by "Pol x."
Not only did Pol X reveal an ignorance that Catholicism and every good and holy aspect of the human body are totally compatible, but he/she did not know that human beings don't "reproduce" (as lower animals and plants do). Human beings "procreate;" spouses cooperate with God (who creates an immortal soul) to bring into being a new human being at conception.
God bless you all (including Pol x).
So, magically, the fertilized egg comes into being, with no history. It was never just an oocyte.
Great logic you've got going there. Was the universe also created in seven days?
Yeah, maybe YOUR god. But please - don't drag your belief system into my frequent occurence of good old hibbity bibbity.
That's rather fascinating though. I never thought of what ovulation actually looked like. Wow.
wikipedia tells me that the human egg is 100 to 200 micrometers in diameter.
200 micrometers is 0.02 milimeters, or 0.007874 inches. (thanks, Internets)
but yeah, human eggs look a lot like caviar. perhaps less gamey tasting, though. i'll never know.
the bbc article has more info, and it will tickle your anglophilic tendencies. full stop.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7447942.stm
when the egg exits the follicle, it is "surrounded by a jelly-like substance containing cells. [so, that big yellow thing is its cushiony clothing, not just the egg]
The egg itself is only the size of a full-stop, and the whole ovary, which contains many immature eggs, just a couple of inches long."
And that's not that gross. In the exhibit, there's an ovary with a burst cyst on it. THAT is TERRYFYING thing to see, especially when you have had 3+.
This...is normal. And amazing.
cool pic though :)
Please don't post any more gross stuff on the front page, have people click through. Seriously.
Let's have a contest to see who can come up with the most pointless semantic arguments. A semantic arguments contest. A argusematest!
Hey religious nuts! Get over it.
Hey people who are grossed out! Get over it.
Hey everyone else! Isn't the human body cool!?
PuhLEASE! Spare us!
Anunsi's comments started out correctly - we are a combination of an egg and a seed, and not just the egg.
As for "reproducing" and "procreation", the difference is the amateur creators are doing it for the love of the sport; the pro creators do it for a living.
Though I do think the fact that he said there would be trouble studying human reproduction at a Catholic University is stupid and kind of offensive, the all-out Catholic post was a little much.
I don't like to check out gross stuff, so I shouldn't read Neatorama? Ok! That makes sense.
This is almost equivalent to getting goatse'd
That would be my point exactly. Glad you caught on.
:)
It seems to be that because it's a part of a female reproductive system, people are finding it scandalous. It feels weirdly puritanical. Honestly, if you didn't know what it was, you'd see it as what it is: a strange and interesting photo of a natural organism.
I know it's natural, but still. Makes me wonder what that thing must smell like.
Seriously, believe whatever you want to believe (religion or science) but keep it to yourself - don't press it on anyone else. Nobody likes this shit - it's old, and none of us want to read it anymore.
This probably could have used a warning, but it really doesn't matter - it's safe for work, and pretty interesting. I, for one, am not bothered by it.