Scientists: Human Life Begins With a Bright Flash of Light

By Al Perrotta Published on April 27, 2016

The connection between light and life is as familiar as the first verses of Genesis. That does not make the news Tuesday out of Northwestern University in Chicago any less astounding.

Scientists there have proven and captured on film for the very first time that at the exact moment of conception, an explosion of sparks erupts from the egg. Indeed, human life begins with a bright flash of light.

And that flash could bring hope to those would-be parents hoping to conceive through in vitro fertilization (IVF).

The Science

While this discovery can quickly having us praise the “Father of Lights” (James 1:17), there is also the matter of chemistry. The Telegraph provides a simple to understand scientific explanation of why there is a flash:

The bright flash occurs because when sperm enters an egg it leads to a surge of calcium which triggers the release of zinc from the egg. As the zinc shoots out, it binds to small molecules which emit a fluorescence which can be picked up by camera microscopes.

The discovery dazzled even the scientists involved. “It was remarkable,” said Professor Teresa Woodruff, an expert in ovarian biology and one of the study’s two senior authors, “We discovered the zinc spark just five years ago in the mouse, and to see the zinc radiate out in a burst from each human egg was breathtaking.”

See for yourself:

 

 

The Great Implication for Those Trying to Conceive

In addition to the beauty and poetry of life starting with a burst of light, there is a practical application to the discovery as well. According to the study, published Tuesday in Scientific Reports, “the size of these ‘sparks’ is a direct measure of the quality of the egg and its ability to develop into an embryo.”

Said Professor Woodruff, “If you can look at the zinc spark at the time of fertilization, you will know immediately which eggs are the good ones to transfer in in vitro fertilization. It’s a way of sorting egg quality in a way we’ve never been able to assess before.”

Currently, roughly half of fertilized eggs don’t develop properly. Determining which eggs have the strongest chance of succeeding had involved either visually assessing the eggs, which can be unreliable or checking the egg for genetic mutations, which is invasive and risks damaging the egg. According to study co-author Dr. Eve Feinberg, “Often we don’t know whether the egg or embryo is truly viable until we see if a pregnancy ensues.”

That, she says, is the reason this discovery is “so transformative.” “If we have the ability up front to see what is a good egg and what’s not, it will help us know which embryo to transfer, avoid a lot of heartache and achieve pregnancy more quickly.”

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