Ten years ago, two researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago were taking their customary and usual walk along the shore of Lake Michigan near their home in Rogers Park. Teresa Woodruff and her husband, chemistry professor Tom O’Halloran, were talking as they walked and Tom asked Teresa the oddest question...
“Why is it do you think,” he posed, “that human sperm contains so much zinc?”
Now to be fair, it was not an odd question whatsoever when you realize their research dealt with in vitro fertilization. But that one singular question led to a break-through discovery that remains so incredible and multi-faceted in its implications as to merit consideration for a Nobel Prize, in my humble opinion.
One of their graduate students was tasked with putting together a competent team to find an answer. And although they did indeed determine why zinc content is so high, they also stumbled across a discovery that no one had ever even thought to look for.
Their experiments revealed for the first time that a fertilized egg releases an explosion of light at the moment the sperm makes contact with it.
“It’s a fundamental mechanism no one knew before,” she writes in her findings. “No one even thought to look for such a thing!”
In the days since I floated my ‘stardust’ theory to explain man’s existence as a species on Earth...boy, have I received a lot of feedback! And sadly, most of it has been negative. I have been called the most disparaging names and my friend count here on Facebook dropped by forty three!
But none of that has diminished my steadfast belief that mine is as plausible an explanation as the one that entails talking serpents, trees of knowledge with tainted fruit and the first and greatest temptation of man by a Creator who is known for NEVER tempting us!
It all seems a bit much for me, but for many it makes perfect sense. And isn’t that the beauty of being human? We can (and do) believe what we want to believe and what resonates within us.
So when I read in the journal Scientific Reports of the experiments that I am writing about today and perused the findings, my belief in my stardust theory became even more cemented into my overall life philosophy.
Here is what happened...
The researchers set up an in vitro fertilization of a female human egg with male sperm...and they video taped the whole thing. At the exact moment of conception, when sperm and egg unite, an explosion of tiny sparks erupt from the egg. To actually see the nearly imperceptible sparks of light radiate out in a burst from the egg was to say the very least...breathtaking.
Not only is it an incredible spectacle, highlighting the very moment that a new life begins, but they also discovered the size of the flash can be used to determine the quality of the fertilized egg.
They noticed that some of the eggs burn brighter than others, showing that they are more likely to produce a healthy baby or perhaps even a genius...one that might grow up to find a cure for cancer or a way to achieve world peace. I am not saying this as fact, but it certainly can’t be ruled out as a possibility.
The bright flash occurs when sperm enters an egg. This leads to a surge of calcium which triggers the release of even more zinc from the egg. As the zinc shoots out, it binds to small molecules which emit a fluorescence which can be picked up by camera microscopes.
Over the last six years this team of researchers have shown that zinc controls the decision to grow and change into a completely new and unique genetic organism.
But what I took away from what I read and witnessed, is something even more exciting. I have long believed that life begins at conception...not when it is viable and sustainable outside the womb. This experiment was transformative for me and makes me believe in my convictions even more.
I am now 100% convinced that human life begins in a bright flash of light at the very moment a single sperm successfully fertilizes an egg.
As I am known for doing, I feel inclined to theorize that this flash of light has a dual purpose...
First, I believe it is a miniature replication of the explosion of the super nova that has provided us with all the known elements in our universe, especially the ones required for human life. This, I believe, is all a part of our Creator's plan.
I would also postulate that at the time of this explosion, the human soul takes up its glorious residency in the fertilized egg and remains there during development and birth, only exiting the body at the moment of death.
For me, the jury is still out as to where it goes from there. This I am fairly sure, I will discover when I die...and not until!
I wonder if the Pro-Choice advocates or that monster of a Governor from New York took any of this into consideration when they formulated their opinions that it is a woman’s choice, a matter of health as they say, as to what she does with her body?
Now I will admit I do indeed believe that anyone can do with their body whatever they choose...I would never advocate for or pontificate about my personal beliefs and impose them on any one.
But the decisions we make all have consequences. All I really know is that for me, this was indeed a game changer! Seeing what I saw and reading what I read only strengthens and reinforces my belief that life begins at conception and that abortion is tantamount to murder.
I know there will be many who will say that I have no say in such matters as long as I do not own the apparatus, a vagina and uterus. But I am a card-carrying member of the human race...a thinking and caring man and in my educated opinion, that earns me a place at the table.
I even questioned if the fertilized egg in the petri dish was indeed a human life and whether the researchers were guilty of destroying it when the experiment came to an end.
You decide! All I wanted to do today was share some very important information that does not appear to have been well disseminated. I wonder why?