4 ms·

> the wrong direction? Sure, flaunting your snail privilege! /s But, seriously, maybe it starts off really small and is a conservation of angular momentum thi

by KGIII 9y ago

> the wrong direction? Sure, flaunting your snail privilege! /s But, seriously, maybe it starts off really small and is a conservation of angular momentum thing, sort of like how most solar bodies orbit counterclockwise? Only really small and, well, probably pretty slow. Something like a small grain of sand could maybe make it spin the other way? Do keep in mind that I'm a mathematician. I haven't actually taken a bio course since about 1983.

avip 9y ago
>maybe it starts off really small and is a conservation of angular momentum thing Being a mathematician does not imply you can get away with saying something that makes so little sense :)
- KGIII 9y ago
  Pfft... Does too! I seriously wonder if it's something like a lump of skin or dirt that makes it go the opposite direction, or the direction of least resistance. Y'all busy looking at genes and stuff. I am gonna stick with simple. It should be noted that my last bio course was well before the human genome was sequenced. I doubt they'd even done snails. Yeah, I'm sticking with that. It's either that or aliens.
  - gus_massa 9y ago
    >>> conservation of angular momentum thing For the snails, probably you mean something like "initial break of symmetry". In the initial steps of the embryo, it must define the front-back, top-down, right-left axis. (I'm not sure about the technical names.) IIRC, each one is defined by some gradient of chemical signal, they are not mechanical, but I'm not sure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphogenesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphogenesis Anyway, it would be a nice experiment to twist a snail embryo and see the development. In particular, the snail of the article has the reproductive and internal organs in the opposite side of most snails. What happens when you twist a snail embryo, do the internal organs get the mirrored position too??? Somewhat related: This explains some parts of the front-back axis "Evo-Devo (Despacito Biology Parody) | A Capella Science" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydqReeTV_vk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydqReeTV_vk
jccalhoun 9y ago
that might explain the shell but the article also says that the snails organs are also reversed so it couldn't mate with righty snails.

by KGIII 9y ago

avip 9y ago

>maybe it starts off really small and is a conservation of angular momentum thing Being a mathematician does not imply you can get away with saying something that makes so little sense :)

KGIII 9y ago
Pfft... Does too! I seriously wonder if it's something like a lump of skin or dirt that makes it go the opposite direction, or the direction of least resistance. Y'all busy looking at genes and stuff. I am gonna stick with simple. It should be noted that my last bio course was well before the human genome was sequenced. I doubt they'd even done snails. Yeah, I'm sticking with that. It's either that or aliens.
- gus_massa 9y ago
  >>> conservation of angular momentum thing For the snails, probably you mean something like "initial break of symmetry". In the initial steps of the embryo, it must define the front-back, top-down, right-left axis. (I'm not sure about the technical names.) IIRC, each one is defined by some gradient of chemical signal, they are not mechanical, but I'm not sure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphogenesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphogenesis Anyway, it would be a nice experiment to twist a snail embryo and see the development. In particular, the snail of the article has the reproductive and internal organs in the opposite side of most snails. What happens when you twist a snail embryo, do the internal organs get the mirrored position too??? Somewhat related: This explains some parts of the front-back axis "Evo-Devo (Despacito Biology Parody) | A Capella Science" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydqReeTV_vk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydqReeTV_vk

jccalhoun 9y ago

that might explain the shell but the article also says that the snails organs are also reversed so it couldn't mate with righty snails.