LONDON: Scientists have cracked one of the world’s oldest riddles – which came first, the chicken or the egg?

A supercomputer gave the team from Sheffield and Warwick Universities the answer – the chicken. The original goal of the research was to find out more about how animals make eggshell.

Society underestimates chickens and we don’t realise the amazing process they perform each time they make an egg.

Eggshell is incredibly strong yet very lightweight. Humans can’t get close to making anything like it.

The results showed that a particular protein in chickens acts as a tireless builder, placing one microscopic section of shell on top of the other.

It initiates this building process before going off to start on another part of the egg.