Which Came First Summary

Before reading the essay, Which Came First, by Francine Prose, I had assumed the question “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” Was a meaningless conundrum, but now I see there is a deeper meaning to gain from it. I gained a deeper understanding by Francine explaining most people do not remember where they first heard the conundrum, a scientific explanation and that the question it self was not what was truly important.
I started to gain a deeper understanding when Francine said most people do not remember when they first heard the conundrum, but we have all heard it. Francine said, “Everyone’s heard the question. But few of us can remember when or where we heard it first, or even when we first realized that such inexplicable questions existed.” When I read this, I thought, “Oh crap, she’s right.” I cannot remember hearing this conundrum, but I can always remember knowing that it was some problem that no one could figure out. When I became aware that this conundrum was a question that led to many other unanswered questions, I realized, the unanswered problem was one among many problems that I have accepted as not having answers. This is the point where I began to understand that …show more content…
Francine said, “Scientists from the universities of Sheffield and Warwick in Great Britain used a super-computer to find a protein that is required for the development of the shell. This protein, ovovledidin-17 (OC-17), is found in the ovaries of chickens. No shell can be made without the ovaries, no egg without the chicken, and so we arrive at the solution to our mystery: the chicken came before the egg.” In my opinion this explanation, “The chicken came before the egg”, is indisputably the case. This opens a door for me that I never fathomed being open, which gives me a broader understanding because I finally know an exact answer to a question I thought was impossible to