One of the most popular forms of child to eat, the egg is a food eaten all over the world in various forms. In America, it is usually eaten scrambled, with the yolk and white mixed in together, and usually seasoned with pepper and salt. Other variations of ways to eat eggs are over easy, sunny side up, over well, and raw. Over easy eggs are cooked on both sides, with the yolk being bordered by the white, and the yolk is runny. Sunny side up eggs are cooked on one side, and not flipped. The yolk is still completely liquid. Over well eggs are cooked on both sides, and the yolk is completely hard. Raw eggs are, well, raw, and very dangerous to humans. Do not consume raw eggs. You will get salmonella, which is really really bad and incredibly unpleasant. There are many different types of eggs out there. The most commonly eaten form of egg is the chicken egg, pictured here. But there are also duck eggs, penguin eggs, ostrich eggs, other bird eggs, and platypus eggs. Most chicken eggs usually weigh between 1-2 oz. Duck eggs are a bit larger, weighing 2.5 oz on average. Most other bird eggs are a bit smaller than duck eggs, ant 2.15 oz, and not usually eaten. Penguin eggs are about the same weight of most bird eggs, weighing in at 2.15 oz. Platypus eggs are a lot smaller, but my 4 minutes of googling did not reveal how much they weighed, and I am not spending the $28 USD to buy one. Ostrich eggs are by far the largest of these eggs, weighing in at a staggering 48 oz. 48 times larger than a small chicken egg. In nature, eggs are used to incubate children until they are old enough to exist. They are normally filled with nutrients and a gel-like liquid to soften impacts on the animal inside. The mother bird will sit on the egg to keep it warm. Usually, only reptiles, fish, and birds lay eggs, but platypi also lay eggs. Almost all eggs are small and round, as they are easy to care for that way. There are some advantages to laying eggs versus live birth. When a female is carrying a child in the form of an egg, she is much more mobile and not as weighed down, as the child is only taking a fraction of the time to form inside her. With live birth, the mother carries the child inside her until it is fully formed, so the mother is weighed down a lot more and thus less mobile. Eggs are also more prone to genetic diversity, which can be very beneficial if the mother has a genetic flaw. Another advantage to eggs is the fact that the mother can leave them to hunt. Since they do not have legs, the eggs cannot run away, unlike animals the were birthed live. Mothers that lay eggs can also lay a lot more, overcoming predators and maintaining a healthy population. Despite all these advantages, there are still some disadvantages of eggs. As seen in ‘Finding Nemo’, the eggs are not as protected (the mom likely ate them, and the dad made up the story of a barracuda to cope with the loss), whereas animals born live are more protected. Also, animals that lay eggs must come back to the eggs periodically to sit on them to keep them warm, but when the baby is inside the mother, they are constantly kept warm. Also, live-birth animals can be more complex, as they can get more nutrients than their egg-laid friends. There are some advantages and disadvantages to eggs that I did not mention, but those are a few examples. Now that you have a basic understanding of what an egg is, go out there and use your newfound knowledge for good! Also, don’t egg cars. The whites will dissolve the paint if left on for long enough, and that is considered vandalism and/or destruction of property.
