Science: Pincogenesis

A scientist who tricks Nature—for sound scientific reasons—is bushy-thatched Dr. Gregory Goodwin Pincus, formerly of Harvard, now of Clark University (Worcester, Mass.) Some years ago Dr. Pincus accomplished the first fertilization of mammalian ova in vitro—a polite way of saying that conception took place in a glass vessel. He took ova from a doe rabbit, sperm from a buck, mixed them in a culture flask, implanted the fertilized ova in another doe which, at term, produced a fine litter (TIME, March 12, 1934). Since then the scientist has been able, by skillful coddling,...

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