What were the characteristics of a living embryo?
The trend of cellular differentiation had already become very clear. The egg yolk and egg white, which had originally been a chaotic mass, had transformed into organs with clearly defined boundaries.
So the Black Technology Blueprint had named its second step "Living Embryo." Did that mean it was time to design distinct functional regions?
Song He's first reaction was that it was that simple, but soon, he couldn't help thinking deeper. He always felt there was a second meaning.
Then what was that second meaning?
That brought him back to the living embryo itself.
Back in middle school, Song He had first learned about cellular differentiation from his textbook. The teacher had used a fertilized egg as an example.
A single fertilized egg contained all the genetic information of an entire life-form.
The fertilized egg grew and divided, grew and divided. After producing countless cells with identical genes, those cells began to differentiate, forming different types of organs and tissues, and ultimately becoming a fully formed living organism.
A living embryo happened to reveal the state in which this process was nearly complete. It was itself a classic example of cellular differentiation!
Back in middle school, Song He might have been terrible at math, but he had already been a biology whiz. When he learned about cellular differentiation, he couldn't help raising his hand to ask the teacher a question.
After a fertilized egg divided into a whole mass of identical cells, how did those cells know that it was time to differentiate?
And how did they know what organs to differentiate into?
For example, with the countless cells in a chicken egg, how did each cell know whether it should become the chicken's head or its feet?
Why was it so