Is Science doing a Makardhwaj?

There is an incredible and unbelieveable tale in the life of Hanuman – the Hindu deity. Ram and Lakshman have been captured by Mahiravan and are being held captive in Patal – lok or under the seas. When Hanuman goes to free them he is faced by a part-monket and part-fish (kind of like a mermaid) creature. His name is Makardhwaj. Makardhwaj tells Hanuman that he is Hanuman’s son! Now, Hanuman is supposed to be celibate. So, there is no way he could have had a son. “How is it possible?” he asked. Here is the process:

…when Hanuman had extinguished his burning tail in the ocean, unknown to him, a drop of his sweat had fallen in as well. Swallowing this sweat droplet, a fish then becomes pregnant. This is discovered when the fish is brought to Mahiravana’s kitchen for cooking. Mahiravana raises the child..

To say that someone didn’t even know and he gave birth to a son sounds so outlandish that everyone laughs at such tales. Well, no more.

Now the scientists are developing methods to create eggs and sperms in laboratories. They are working on creation of artificial gametes. These will help the scientists understand how the real eggs and sperms are made and also help understand the issues of infertility such that even sterile men and women could have biological parents. It involved creating sperms and eggs from any body tissue providing the DNA – like a stray skin. Something like this could unfold:

“If sperm and eggs can be created from stray skin cells, people’s control over their reproductive choices is dramatically altered,” she says. “A woman could simply pick up a bit of bodily detritus, take it to a laboratory, and give birth to the genetic child of Sir Richard Branson.”

Some kind of primitive sperm cells have already been developed out of bone marrow cells and Prof Karim Nayernia (Professor of Stem Cell Biology at the Newcastle University) is now working on doing with the female embryonic stem cells. He is waiting for permission to turn a woman’s bone marrow into a sperm!

This could mean that a woman would not need any man to reproduce. She could one day just simply walk down to the clinic and create her own kid out of herself. A Virgin birth! Or just get a piece of hair from the most sought after male and get her own version of him! Without him knowing of course.

Sometimes, it is not clear whether the science gets inspired from mythology or mythology is just science forgotten?