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1,700 year old egg never broke
I guess they are scientists and know better than me, but my bet is that is will just contain sludge.

Egg shells are more organic than you expect.

This is why you use stuff like waterglass https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_silicate to seal them.

> Egg shells are more organic than you expect.

I expect them to be completely organic. What else would they be?

namespace collision: to the layperson, it's organic because it came from an organism. from a chemical perspective, it's considered non-organic

i admit i read ops comment and was confused for a second until it clicked. they're mostly calcium carbonate

I wondered about that but then in context wasn’t sure of the relevance. I’m aware that even fresh eggs are somewhat porous and wouldn’t expect the contents to last beyond a week before beginning to break down.
Mostly calcium carbonate.
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  • foxyv
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Calcium carbonate. So a salt I guess?
So eggs shells are less organic than I would think.
The eggshell looks like a century egg, but as mentioned by the comment the contents may have decomposed if the mud wasn't alkaline like the century egg production process.
It’s a 17 century egg, to be precise
  • ars
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I think they should not pierce it, but instead leave it for future humans to study.
Science funding requires doing something. Nobody funds you to not do something.

Regardless of getting funding, I don't see why our level of technology is not adequate to study an egg.

  • sdwr
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It might be the only 1700 year old egg in the world. Surely the prudent thing to do is wait some fraction of its age (200 years?) and reevaluate. What are the chances that, out of all of history, now is the best time to open it?
It’s already been removed from it’s protective environment and will degrade long before 200 years.
Depending on how you look at it, the ones studying it are future humans.
Forbidden breakfast!
Don't worry, I'll find another one
Of course they are going to break it.
  • shrx
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I wonder why they don't put it in a CT scanner first before breaking it.
  • shrx
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Apologies, apparently I missed this part in the article since the large ad banner immediately next to it distracted me.
Install an ad blocker, friend!
ublock origin to be specific
> A Micro CT scan showed that this ancient egg is still full of liquid.

> “Researchers are planning to carefully extract the liquid to better study it,” stated Edward Biddulph, Senior Project Manager, who oversaw the site excavation. “It’s a controlled process similar to egg blowing, where a tiny hole is made in its shell after creating a 3D model.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_microtomography

I think it is a mistake not to cut the top off the egg and just look inside as ancient egg shell has no value after it drys out and the visual information may be unique,so off with its top, and then take samples of the "liquid" and the inner shell lining, if it's present, and then see if there is any remaining structure of an embryo or the egg as laid.
>Scientists are eager to use DNA testing to establish the species that laid the egg

how much DNA is in an egg, isn't it just a single cell with a single nucleus? and if unfertilized is haploid?

  • fbn79
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In addition to the single nucleus the egg can contains trace of DNA from the mother
I dare them to make an omelette wit that.
Fry it up with bog butter!
  • a3w
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Can't make science without breaking an egg!
Story of an egg that never hatched.
I'm willing to bet there's a dragon in that egg.
  • kubb
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What's your definition of a scientist?

I wonder if many of history's greatest scientists might fail to meet it.

This is actually my wife's job/area of research, except typically they use the eggshell proteins to determine taxonomy. It's extremely rare that DNA survives in these types of samples but the proteins are preserved in the eggshell's mineral matrix.
"Scientist" is cool, but personally I would call myself a "forensic archeologist" if I had this gig.
It's usually just called archaeology or perhaps biomolecular archaeology. Forensic archaeology is a bit different, and it usually pertains to humans and their crimes.
duke dennis must’ve saved the egg for breakfast but forgot about it loll