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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the

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Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow

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Speaker 2: Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time. Today,

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Speaker 2: we continue our Alien Monster Fact series leading up to

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Speaker 2: the August sixteenth release of Alien Romulus, with a trip

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Speaker 2: back to the very beginning the xenomorph egg. In the

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Speaker 2: original nineteen seventy nine film Alien, the crew of the

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Speaker 2: Nostromo discovered thousands of strange rubbery eggs, each between two

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Speaker 2: and three feet in hide or point six two point

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Speaker 2: nine meters in height, aboard a derelict Engineer spacecraft. As

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Speaker 2: I originally discussed in the article how the Alien Xenomorph

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Speaker 2: Works back in twenty twelve for the website How Stuff Works,

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Speaker 2: the first stop in interpreting the strange stage of the

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Speaker 2: alien life cycle is to approach it as an egg.

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Speaker 2: That is to say, we have to compare it to

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Speaker 2: the amniotic eggs of birds, reptiles, and amphibians, which protect

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Speaker 2: and nourish the organism inside during its early development. The

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Speaker 2: xenomorph egg certainly contains and protects an organism the face

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Speaker 2: hugger stage of the xenomorphic life cycle. No matter what

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Speaker 2: the external environmental conditions might be, the egg seems to

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Speaker 2: keep the face hugger moist alive and possibly at the

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Speaker 2: appropriate temperature, within a vat of fleshy pulpy material that

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Speaker 2: we might compare to the yolk or dudoplasm that serves

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Speaker 2: this purpose in terrestrial eggs. But the xeno egg seemingly

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Speaker 2: evolved to not only protect a developing organism, but to

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Speaker 2: preserve it in a state of readiness. As we'll discuss

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Speaker 2: in the next episode, the face hugger absolutely depends on

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Speaker 2: host availability, and the egg patiently awaits delivery to or

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Speaker 2: discovery by suitable hosts. And this is where we consider

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Speaker 2: another possibility, one explored by the Alien RPG from Free

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Speaker 2: League Publishing. Perhaps it's not merely an egg, but a

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Speaker 2: full blown stage of the alien life cycle, an ovomorph

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Speaker 2: and an organism in and of itself. Consider the face

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Speaker 2: hugger doesn't hatch or burst from the egg like a

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Speaker 2: natural world hatchling. Instead, it's the ovomorph that opens its

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Speaker 2: four dorsal petals or lips and allows the face hugger

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Speaker 2: to spring forth. Perhaps indeed, it is the egg that

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Speaker 2: initially senses nearby prey and not the face hugger. We

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Speaker 2: might also look to the ropey tendrils that seem to

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Speaker 2: protrude from the bases of these eggs. Are these merely

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Speaker 2: secreted resin strands to bind the eggs in place against

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Speaker 2: environmental stress or gravitational changes, or are they tentacles that

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Speaker 2: may help sense interlopers. Are they, in fact roots that

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Speaker 2: seek nourishment to sustain their hidden organic payloads? Mainly in

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Speaker 2: the phantasmagorical concept art of dark surrealist hr Giger, the

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Speaker 2: egg's dorsal openings are sometimes manifested as a single slit,

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Speaker 2: implying not hatching but live birth.

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Speaker 1: Ah.

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Speaker 2: But there is more mystery to consider here concerning the ovomorph,

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Speaker 2: as seen in alternate cuts of Ridley Scott's Alien and

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Speaker 2: is embraced in the Alien RPG source book. There are

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Speaker 2: two known ways to wind up with the XENOMORPHAG. A

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Speaker 2: hive queen may deposit the eggs in great number, as

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Speaker 2: we see in James Cameron's Aliens, or a living host

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Speaker 2: may develop into a XENOMORPHAE. Here's how it allegedly works.

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Speaker 2: A lone xenomorph drone such as the titular creature in

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Speaker 2: the original Alien, collects hosts, incapacitates them, cocoons their bodies

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Speaker 2: with resin secretions, and then uses a barb on its tail,

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Speaker 2: perhaps a form of ovipositor, to inject them with enzymes, hormones,

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Speaker 2: and perhaps some derivative of the black Goo. The unfortunate

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Speaker 2: host then slowly transforms into a swollen overmorph themselves, complete

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Speaker 2: with a face hugger, drifting dreaming in its semi translucent depths.

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Speaker 2: With enough time and enough available hosts, the new egg

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Speaker 2: may birth a whole new hive of xenomorphic world consuming horror.

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Speaker 2: Tune in for additional episodes of the Monster Fact each week.

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Speaker 2: Our Alien series will continue here, but afterwards episodes of

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Speaker 2: The Artifact and Anamalia Stupendium shall return. Thanks to the

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Speaker 2: excellent Jjpossway for producing this episode, and as always, you

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Speaker 2: can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your

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Speaker 2: Mind dot com.

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Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

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Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.