A friend told me about a woman who had a tumor removed from her ovary (or something in that area), and the tumor had hair and teeth. She was young and I think a virgin, so this couldn’t have been the beginnings of a baby. Have you heard of this happening, or is my friend pulling my leg? –MelGag, via AOL
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The tumor we’re talking about here is called a teratoma. At one time teratomas (which are usually benign) were thought to originate in some sort of embryonic or quasi-embryonic cell gone wrong. But most experts now consider them a type of germ-cell tumor–in this case a tumor involving an egg. Though the egg is unfertilized, tumor-driven cell division results in a lot of the same stuff you see in a developing fetus, including cartilage, bone, teeth, hair, brain tissue, and sometimes even bowel, skull, vertebrae, and eyes. It’s all chaotically arranged and bears no resemblance to an actual embryo. Nonetheless, since larger teratomas can weigh several pounds…well, I suppose all cancer is pretty weird. But this kind is weirder than most.
Why is cheddar cheese orange? Do they color it that way, or is it part of the cheese-ifying process? I know that cheese is made from milk, but I don’t think that I could make the milk in my fridge turn orange, no matter how long I left it in there. What’s up?
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration by Slug Signorino.
