Scene: Legal Writing and Research class
Last night, we were discussing legal analysis, and how to apply rules from multiple cases to a new case. The subject at issue was the importation of "invasive material", which is basically something like Kudzu - a non-native plant or animal that has the potential to choke out native species. In our hypothetical example, the defendant imported a female marsupial mouse.
The professor was trying to get us to think about the issue and he asked how a single mouse could reproduce. People threw out reasonable answers like finding a male marsupial mouse, or finding a male mouse of another variety and cross-breeding. One person blurted out "parthenogenesis!"
We all had a good laugh. I must admit that while I would expect to discuss parthenogenesis in a biology class or in the analysis of a bad science fiction film, I didn't expect to find it in law school.
Update: I just randomly stumbled across a news article stating that a shark in an aquarium in Omaha reproduced by parthenogenesis.
1 comment:
Although, now that I think of it, I might be able to get more done if I could clone myself...
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