Male Microchimerism and Changeling Royalty DNA-Storing · 2:46pm Jun 25th, 2017
I had already decided (though I don't know if I'd mentioned it in any published stories) that female Changeling Royalty had the power to retain living DNA from those with whom they had mated for years, and produce offspring from this DNA selectively, at will. Imagine my surprise when I found out that a (random) version of this ability may actually occur in humans!
(Link to popular article, but that link further links to the actual studies).
This makes me feel much better about giving my Changelings this power, since if this is possible in our (non-magical) world, it seems much more plausible in a world with actual psychic powers.
It also further explains why female chastity (note, not "celibacy") tends to evolve in most Human cultures. Reputation becomes even more important if a woman may accidentally bear children carrying DNA from past lovers. It also explains why male chastity is a much rarer custom -- if one has a chance of perpetuating one's DNA even by an old lover, one has a greater incentive in the evolutionary sense to have as many lovers as possible.
Thanks for this fascinating link!
However, I need to point out that the author's reasoning is over-hasty. "Unrecognized spontaneous abortion" is actually somewhat common; scientists have found about 30%-50% of pregnancies end in miscarriage. Perhaps the real number's higher?
Or... maybe not, and something else happens? I'm very curious how the haploid spermatazoa become the (presumably?) diploid cells these researchers found. If my guess about huge numbers of very early miscarriages is wrong, something weird is going on, and I'm very curious what.
Huh. This makes "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" even more terrifying. And I'm not sure what it says about me that that's my first thought.
In any case, fascinating link. Thank you for it.
I looked at the article you linked, but are you certain that site is a reliable source?