Why did human pregnancy tests lead to the extinction of frogs? Do you know the evolutionary history of these pregnancy tests?

thumbnail

> > Can you believe it? In order to test pregnancy, human beings have invented all kinds of strange methods, and even almost caused the extinction of frogs. What is going on? Is there a relationship between human pregnancy tests and frogs? >

A long time ago, medical technology was not developed, and people tried their best to detect whether they were pregnant, but the real pregnancy test had to start from ancient Egypt 3,500 years ago. In the records at that time, women If you want to know whether you are pregnant or not, you will put the seeds of barley and wheat in a bag containing urine at the same time. If the seeds germinate, it proves that you are pregnant. If the barley germinates, you are pregnant with a boy. Then she conceived a girl. This method seemed confusing, but scientists later confirmed that the accuracy rate of the seed pregnancy test reached 70%.

In comparison, the breath pregnancy test invented by the ancient Greeks is a bit outrageous and absurd. To verify whether you are pregnant, you need to stuff an onion into a woman's body. If the woman has a very serious breath the next morning, It proves that there is no pregnancy, but this method has not been recognized by modern medicine. Until the Middle Ages, Europeans came up with another trick, which is the urine observation method. According to written records, the urine of pregnant women is clear and off-white. Knowing you haven't noticed, pregnancy tests mostly revolve around urine, but what does that have to do with the extinction of frogs? Let's look down.

Can you imagine it? Human pregnancy testing is inseparable from urine, and the relationship between urine and pregnancy testing did not gradually surface until the 1920s. What role did frogs play during this period? In 1927, scientists discovered hCG, the full name of which is human chorionic gonadotropin, when they tested the urine of pregnant women. effective pregnancy test.

So two scientists started related experiments. At first, they injected the urine of a suspected pregnant woman into the body of a young novice mouse, and then dissected and observed the condition of the ovary. Precocious puberty proved that the woman was pregnant. In order to ensure the accuracy Each test requires 5 novice mice, and the cycle is 4 days. Later, scientists put their ideas on novice rabbits. Fortunately, the detection cycle was shortened to 36 hours, but the cost of novice rabbits was too high. In 1930, there was a A scientist inadvertently discovered that frogs can be used for pregnancy tests, which are cheap and do not need to be killed. In this way, the African clawed frogs, which are large in number and easy to catch, have become pregnancy test animals instead of novice rabbits. The female's urine was injected into the frog.

If the female frog lays eggs, it proves that the female is pregnant. The detection cycle only takes 6-12 hours. It is worth mentioning that the African clawed frog can be recycled, and the next round of detection can be carried out every few days, and then artificially raised. Their lifespan can exceed 10 years, so the question is, since frogs can be recycled and live long, why are they almost extinct? Let's look down.

do you know? Frogs have played a very positive role in promoting the evolution of human pregnancy tests, but why did human pregnancy tests almost lead to the extinction of frogs? In 1960, scientists invented a pregnancy test tool after research, so they decided to "let the frogs go back to the mountains", but such a move unintentionally planted the root of the disaster. In 1993, inexplicable deaths of frogs occurred in many parts of the country. Scientists boldly speculate that it may be related to the African clawed frogs used for pregnancy testing. After testing, scientists found that the dead frogs were all infected with Bd.

It is understood that it was the African clawed frog that was first discovered to be infected with the frog chytrid. Earlier, because of the pregnancy test, the African clawed frog was transported to various parts of the world, which led to the death of the local frogs infected with the frog chytrid. What is even more surprising is that , 695 species of amphibians in 71 countries have been infected by Bd. In just ten years, a large number of amphibians have died and many species have become extinct. Fortunately, humans have invented A more advanced and gentle pregnancy test method stopped the harm and extinction of animals.

However, most of today's pregnancy test tools are carried out by testing urine, and the accuracy rate is also very high. However, in the process of using it, there is a very interesting discovery. The pregnancy test stick can not only test the pregnancy of women, Even men can detect two bars, but this does not mean good news, but cells in certain parts of the body may be cancerous, so don't underestimate this pregnancy test stick , what do you think about this? Have you tested it secretly? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area below to discuss, and we will see you next time!

Related Posts