We had been gifted the illustrated ‘Sapiens’ (both volumes) long back, and even tried reading them by ourselves. Unfortunately, a lot of it went over our heads and when Baba bear asked us about something, we were unable to answer. So, we asked Baba bear to read it to us. And this morning, instead of going out for our regular run (also because it was raining cats & dogs), we quickly got ready, wore our favourite red sweater and two pigtails, courtesy our Aji, and sat down with Baba bear. And Yuval, the historian.
That is how we landed up on this page that talks about how to differentiate between species. In the book, Prof Saraswati explains that those organisms that can mate with each other and produce fertile offspring are the same species.
Now, we already knew what organisms were since the book explains it just a few pages earlier. But we didn’t know what mating meant and didn’t know what ‘fertile’ meant. So, Baba explained it to us. He said that while this is not how it works all of the time, it should suffice for us to have a working knowledge of the process.
You see, males have sperm and females have eggs. These eggs need to be fertilised by the sperm to start making a baby. This baby may come out as an egg and then hatch outside the mother, or may grow inside the mother and come out as a whole baby. The process of making this baby by fertilising the eggs is called mating. And those who can mate and have babies are called fertile while the opposite of that are sterile. Simple, right?
But we had more questions for Baba bear. How, we wanted to know, do the sperm and egg meet? So, Baba bear told us that usually, males will have a penis (which we already know) and females a vagina (which too we already know; you see, we have one). The penis is used to put the semen, which contains the sperm, into the vagina, from where it is transported to the eggs to fertilise them. Baba bear used this to explain it to us.
He said that while it is not necessary, most humans (Homo sapiens, as we now know they are called) will mate and produce babies only when they love each other. Mamma and Baba loved each other and so, they made me.
Having understood this, we nodded our head and turned the page.
And that, we should admit, was that. Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy.
