THE ORIGIN OF THE THEORY OF INTERSPECIES EMBRYO TRANSFER

 

There is a definition of philosophy by the American philosopher-scientist Daniel C. Dennett that I love very much; “Philosophy is all mental and intellectual activities carried out until the right question is found.” Science is also all the activities carried out to seek an answer to this right question. This definition is also valid for me and my scientific journey began in 1974 with a question; can a mammalian embryo form, develop and be born in the uterus of another species?

 

After asking this question, I searched for an experimental model. Since I did not have the conditions to put a goat embryo into a sheep’s uterus and test it, I designed a proxy experiment that could be a basis for this experiment. This experiment would be like placing a mammalian embryo into the uterus of another mammalian species. I broke a fertilized egg into a cup and threw away its shell. Then I placed this cup into the incubation environment I created. And I obtained a chick from the egg outside its shell.

 

From here, my confidence in my hypothesis of interspecies embryo transfer increased. As a matter of fact, later in 1983, a veterinary institute in Germany implanted the embryo of a dwarf African goat into a sheep’s uterus and achieved birth. As a result of these two experiments, both of my hypotheses became theories.

 

When my hypotheses of interspecies embryo transfer and obtaining a chick from a shell-less egg became theories, I asked another question; what would happen if a pure chimpanzee embryo were implanted into a human uterus? While searching for an answer to this question, as a result of my research, I reached the conclusion that humans are intelligent not because they are bipedal, but because they have a vertical body (therefore the skull and thus the brain grew). Since I have mentioned these theses in detail in my book “The Origin of Humans” and in my articles, I do not find it necessary to elaborate here.

 

As a result; I brought to the scientific world the theory of “interspecies embryo transfer”, the theory of “obtaining a chick from a shell-less egg” and the hypothesis that “if a chimpanzee embryo is implanted into a human uterus, the skull becomes rounded and its volume increases.”