<story><title>An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen known”</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/science/frogs-fungus-bd.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>openasocket</author><text>How on Earth does someone discover that? What possible series of events or hypotheses would lead someone to perform such an experiment?</text></item><item><author>tptacek</author><text>Fun factoid: in the 1930s, it was discovered that you could inject human urine into African clawed frogs; if the frogs subsequently ovulated, the human was pregnant, and for something like 2 decades this became the universal standard test for human pregnancy. It&amp;#x27;s thought by some that the circulation of those African clawed frogs introduced chytrid pathogens to habitats around the world, since the first recorded pathological chytrid specimens were from South Africa.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>busyant</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t know why, but this conversation reminds me of a guy I used to work with.&lt;p&gt;The guy had studied animal husbandry and he told my co-workers and me that if you inserted a foreign object (about the size of a quarter) up into the reproductive area of a hen at _just the right time_, the hen would often lay an egg with the foreign object trapped inside.[1]&lt;p&gt;Our business plan:&lt;p&gt;* get a bunch of hens&lt;p&gt;* have guys mail $500 + engagement rings to us.&lt;p&gt;* insert engagement ring into hen&lt;p&gt;* ship back ring-encased egg to the dudes.&lt;p&gt;* dudes ask girlfriends to cook an omelette...&lt;p&gt;I still wonder how anyone figured that out.&lt;p&gt;[1] There might have been surgery involved. Can&amp;#x27;t remember.</text></comment>
<story><title>An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen known”</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/science/frogs-fungus-bd.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>openasocket</author><text>How on Earth does someone discover that? What possible series of events or hypotheses would lead someone to perform such an experiment?</text></item><item><author>tptacek</author><text>Fun factoid: in the 1930s, it was discovered that you could inject human urine into African clawed frogs; if the frogs subsequently ovulated, the human was pregnant, and for something like 2 decades this became the universal standard test for human pregnancy. It&amp;#x27;s thought by some that the circulation of those African clawed frogs introduced chytrid pathogens to habitats around the world, since the first recorded pathological chytrid specimens were from South Africa.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>shoes_for_thee</author><text>perhaps it was known that hCG is present in the urine of pregnant women.&lt;p&gt;and also that hCG induces ovulation in frogs.&lt;p&gt;If injecting frogs with urine is cheaper than other methods of detecting signaling horomones.. well, there ya go.</text></comment>