Can man and ape combine? This is a complex problem, which is absolutely impossible from the point of view of reproductive isolation, but the Soviet scientist Ivanov tried every means to do such an experiment. Traveled all over the African continent for this experiment.
At 8 a.m. on February 28, 1927, Soviet biologist Professor Ilya Ivanov approached two adult female chimpanzees in cages and, with the assistance of her son, forcibly injected them with human semen.
Those who have studied biology know that plants can improve varieties through hybridization, such as Yuan Longping's hybrid rice, which solves the problem of food and clothing for hundreds of millions of people in the world.
Animals also have examples of hybridization, such as mules are the offspring of horses and donkeys, but the hybridization between these two different species leads to mules being infertile, which is a defect.
So why did Ivanov cling to this crazy idea? It all starts with his experience.
Hot-blooded young people who dare to think and dare to do it
Ivanov was born into a wealthy family during the Tsarist period, and because of the good family conditions, Ivanov also received the best education. He has been extremely curious about everything since he was a child, which has laid a solid foundation for him to devote himself to scientific research.
In his youth, he went to Paris to study at the Institut Pasteur, the forefront of the academic circles at that time, and immediately after returning to China, he devoted himself to the study of reproductive biology, becoming a leader in the field of veterinary medicine in the application of artificial insemination technology, and his achievements were concerned and supported by the royal family, and the princes and even Tsar Nicholas II himself provided him with financial support.
With the blessing of strong capital, Ivanov has always dared to think and dare to do on the road of scientific research, and he can buy what equipment he wants immediately, and he is also immersed in his own research.
At the time, he was obsessed with artificial insemination, but at the time the technology was heavily resisted.
In the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, human thought was not so open, and there was prejudice against many science and technology, and Ivanov's artificial fertilization technique was one of them. When he published the paper, he was adamantly opposed by the church, and even the scientists at the time had no confidence in it.
It is generally believed that 'natural X intercourse' is the best way for species to breed, which is the strongest guarantee for health.
But Ivanov was not overwhelmed by these objections, but instead sank down to study his career.
In 1911, Ivanov began to practice his ideas one after another. Because at that time, there were too few precedents for scientists to pass artificial fertilization, only 21 cases.
Ivanov wanted to do a big vote, proposing to use large animals as hybrids, which caused a huge sensation at the time, and everyone thought that he would end in failure.
By the time of World War I, Ivanov had successfully conducted hybridization experiments on more than 6,000 warhorses and more than 3,000 sheep, including rabbits, chickens, ducks and geese.
This success made his idea even bolder, what would a hybrid of man and ape breed?
In 1910, during his attendance at the International Congress of Zoology in Graz, Austro-Hungarian, Ivanov first proposed the idea of using human semen to inseminate and breed female apes.
Immerse yourself in the study of ape hybridization
Ivanov was deeply favored by the Russian royal family at that time, and after he proposed this idea, Tsarist Russia expressed strong support and allocated him a large amount of scientific research funds for the study of ape hybridization.
But the plan was stillborn shortly after it began, and the October Revolution broke out in Russia, and all the members of the royal family who supported it were killed.
Ivanov, who lost financial support, did not give up on his scientific dreams, and he returned to his alma mater, the Pasteur Institute.
Ivanov told the relevant leaders about his idea, and the leaders were also quite interested in the matter, so they agreed to his request. However, this time, the leaders are only willing to provide research sites, not research funds.
This has no money to do anything, for love to generate electricity is not OK, the equipment is not to mention others.
The road was no longer possible, and Ivanov turned to the Soviet government for help, hoping that it would support his research. The Soviet Union had just overthrown the Tsarist government, and it was precisely the need for such cutting-edge scientific ideas to emancipate the minds of the people.
You think, at that time, when the formal thinking was unprecedentedly jumping, a large number of women greatly admired Lenin, so if you could give birth to tens of millions of Lenins in this way, it would not be happy.
It is precisely with this that religion is used to combat religion, because religion basically produced deep-rooted ideas in people's minds at that time.
Travel to Africa
Ivanov successfully attracted investment from the Soviet government, and Masan went to the Jindia Institute in Africa to start his own research.
However, the road to scientific research is not smooth, and many difficulties have been encountered.
For example, at that time, the research on this area was a blank, basically in its infancy. The conditions and equipment of the institute are not perfect, which also causes certain difficulties to the experiment.
The difficulties on the device were not the only ones, and at first Ivanov's research direction was to cross human sperm with female apes. But the chimpanzees at the Kindia Institute, where they were located at the time, were basically still small and did not meet the conditions for breeding.
At that time, the researchers of the Jindia Institute did not welcome Ivanov's arrival and continued to exclude him. Ivanov thought that if he stayed here, there would be no results, so he planned to leave here to study on his own.
After leaving the Jindia Institute, Ivanov took his son as an assistant and worked together on this great initiative.
The two came to Africa to start an experiment on catching adult chimpanzees, and finally took a lot of effort to catch two adult chimpanzees.
Do you think you'll succeed if you catch it? Of course not.
The local blacks were feudal at the time, and they regarded chimpanzees as inferior species. If a woman is forced by a chimpanzee, then this woman will disappear forever.
Given this situation, Ivanov is not easy to start, they can only do it secretly.
The father and son pulled the two chimpanzees into the grove, and in order to prevent others from finding out and fighting back with the chimpanzees, they also carried self-defense pistols.
Due to the rush, Ivanov could only inject human semen directly into the chimpanzee's womb. There is no doubt that next month the chimpanzee's aunt will arrive on time, and the conception will not be successful.
After several failed experiments, Ivanov was also frustrated. After his own review and study, he suddenly thought why not the other way around?
Every time it is so difficult to find a female orangutan, why not just find a few male orangutans to take out the sperm and then cross them with human females, which is not much more convenient?
By chance, Ivanov met the doctor who was working in the African hospital at the time, and he was also excited to hear this bold idea, and he gave Ivanov a suggestion to attack the women in the colonial hospital.
You don't have to tell them the truth, just say you will heal them.
At the doctor's recommendation, Ivanov met the administrator of the colony at that time, and he agreed with the matter. But then he said it couldn't be done in the hospital, it had to be done outside.
You don't provide equipment two don't provide a venue, where do I go to do research, grove?
Ivanov gave up the idea, and since he couldn't do it here, let's go back to China.
Luck returning home was ultimately a failure
In 1928, the Soviet Union under the leadership of Stalin broke out the "Cultural Revolution M", when the Soviet Union was undergoing a major change of thought.
Stalin was aware of Ivanov's research and offered to support him at the time. And how no one supported it before such a great scientific research.
Ivanov had Stalin's patron and rekindled hope and began his dream of ape hybridization.
After the lessons of the previous failures, Ivanov completely abandoned the idea of female ape fertilization and changed to human female fertilization.
Because of the strong support of the government at that time and Stalin as a patron, Ivanov began to recruit female volunteers in society. While this study sounds ridiculous, probably no woman wants to join in.
However, in the social emancipation boom at that time, women broke the shackles and were not bound by traditional ideas, and some people still signed up for this experiment.
One of the female experimenters wrote in the letter:
Dear Professor, because my private life is so unlovable, I don't see what else I mean to live. ...... But when I learned that I could dedicate myself to science, I had enough courage to contact you. I beg you, don't reject me... I beg you to let me participate in the experiment.
Seeing that his highlight moment was coming, Ivanov fell into the abyss.
Because it was the period of criticism, his chief assistant took the lead in criticizing Ivanov, saying that he was a person cultivated by Tsarist Russia, and eventually Ivanov was sent to prison by his assistant. He was replaced by an assistant, and the plan died before it could be implemented.
As Stalin ended this cultural movement, Ivanov regained his freedom. But by this time Ivanov was old, his body could not support himself, and he died of illness on the way back to Moscow.
With Ivanov's death, this bold study also came to an end with Ivanov's death.