In the refrigerated section of almost any supermarket, rows of white or brown eggs sit neatly in stacks of cartons, waiting to be picked up by grocery shoppers. Their shape is a familiar asymmetric ellipse, as if they were cast from the same mold. So familiar that one rarely gives it a thought, as if it is synonymous with the word “egg.” But why? Why are eggs shaped the way they are? How Does the Chicken Egg Form? To crack open the mystery of egg shape, we must first understand the biology of how chicken eggs form. Unlike the female reproductive organs of humans, a hen (an adult female chicken) consists only of a single ovary and an oviduct. While both female humans and hens begin development with two sets of ovaries and oviducts, only the left set matures in hens. The other set regresses before the hen hatches [1]. The ovary is where oocytes (the immature egg cells) mature and are released into the oviduct. Remarkably, the mature chicken oocyte – the yolk – is a single cell with a diameter of four to five centimeters [1]. Why Is the Chicken Egg 雞蛋形狀的奧秘： 為何 By Ian Cheng 鄭朗健
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