WEBVTT - How Can an Ancient Pregnancy Test Actually Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works, Hey, brain stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, we have a lot more in common

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<v Speaker 1>with ancient people than we might think. For instance, it

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<v Speaker 1>was as useful for a woman to know three thousand,

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<v Speaker 1>five hundred years ago whether she was pregnant or not

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<v Speaker 1>as it is today. And though some may scoff at

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<v Speaker 1>many of the practices the ancients considered science, in ancient Egypt,

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<v Speaker 1>astrology was cutting edge technology. You've got to hand it

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<v Speaker 1>to them. Some of their scientific methods have turned out

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<v Speaker 1>to be pretty accurate. According to some unpublished ancient Egyptian

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<v Speaker 1>medical texts in the Papyrus Carlsberg collection at the University

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<v Speaker 1>of Copenhagen in Denmark, what they had in the way

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<v Speaker 1>of pregnancy tests was grain, specifically barley and wheat, but

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<v Speaker 1>it worked. According to one papyrus text from around one thousand,

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<v Speaker 1>four hundred b C. In order for a woman to

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<v Speaker 1>determine whether she was pregnant or not, all she had

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<v Speaker 1>to do was urinate in two different bags, one filled

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<v Speaker 1>with barley and the other with wheat. If the grain

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<v Speaker 1>in either bag subsequently sprouted, the woman was definitely with

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<v Speaker 1>child and could start planning accordingly. But wait, there's more.

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<v Speaker 1>In order to tell the sex of the child, the

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<v Speaker 1>woman simply had to wait and see which of the

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<v Speaker 1>grains sprouted first. If the barley sprouted faster, the baby

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<v Speaker 1>would be a boy. If the wheat sprouted first, it

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<v Speaker 1>would be a girl. According to the National Institute of Health,

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<v Speaker 1>a study conducted in nineteen sixty three found that this

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<v Speaker 1>method of determining pregnancy is accurate about seventy percent of

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<v Speaker 1>the time, which isn't bad, although it was not accurate

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<v Speaker 1>at all when it came to determining the sex of

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<v Speaker 1>the baby. Modern pregnancy tests rely on proteins that can

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<v Speaker 1>detect a hormone called human choreonic ganatotropin or hCG, but

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<v Speaker 1>scientists speculate that this old timey test worked so well

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<v Speaker 1>because elevated levels of estrogen in a woman's urine might

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<v Speaker 1>have promoted seed growth. It's estimated that as few as

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<v Speaker 1>zero point zero one percent of ancient Egyptian medical text survive,

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<v Speaker 1>but researchers currently pouring over the papyri in the Carlsberg

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<v Speaker 1>collection are finding that medical information discovered in ancient Egypt

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<v Speaker 1>didn't disappear when the Library of Alexandria burned. By that time,

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<v Speaker 1>it had made its way all over the African continent

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<v Speaker 1>and beyond. Sophie Shoots, a PhD student from the University

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<v Speaker 1>of Copenhagen, told Science Nordic, many of the ideas in

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<v Speaker 1>the medical texts from ancient Egypt appear again in later

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<v Speaker 1>Greek and Roman texts. From here they spread further to

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<v Speaker 1>the medieval medical texts in the Middle East, and you

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<v Speaker 1>can find traces all the way up to pre modern medicine,

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<v Speaker 1>which goes to show that first of all, people have

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<v Speaker 1>always needed useful reproductive health advice, and second of all,

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<v Speaker 1>necessity has always been the mother of invention. Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>was written by Jesselyin Shields and produced by Tyler Clang.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm supposed to remind you to contain yourself in brain

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<v Speaker 1>more on this and lots of other inventive topics, visit

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