[dcrazy]

Since human fetuses are usually encapsulated within the womb of an adult woman, they’re far more insulated from arbitrary chemical environments than bee larvae. But of course we know of many cases where chemicals make it through the mother’s body and into the fetus’s immediate environment, affecting its development: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/fetal-alcohol...

[Terr_]

> arbitrary chemical environments

Temperature is another factor. IIRC amphibian embryos have to develop in a wide range of temperatures (an egg might be stuck to a leaf), so their cells have many more variants of proteins, where each variant is most-effective in a different temperature band.

In contrast, a mammal blastocyst or embryo already has the multicellular mother keeping temperature within a narrower band.

[tyre]

Another interesting example is sea turtles, whose eggs are in a relatively stable environment (sand), but its temperature changes year to year. Based on the temperature of the eggs, you see a different distribution of offspring sex.

[vanderZwan]

Yeah, ages ago I read in a book about evolution that mammalian genes are actually simplified (or optimized, if you will) compared to amphibians because we don't have to accomodate as wide of a temperature range due to being warm-blooded and giving live birth.

I also recall seeing in a documentary that the temperature of crocodile eggs will determine if it's a male or female. Wikipedia seems to back that up:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperature-dependent_sex_dete...

[spwa4]

If you think fetal alcohol syndrome is bad, check what the consequences of lead poisoning are, knowing that just about every state has mass-contaminated their population with lead and then refused to help with the consequences.

You can avoid fetal alcohol syndrome. You cannot realistically avoid fetal lead poisoning.

[LoganDark]

Well you can't really undo lead poisoning. Nor microplastics, etc. Once those have gotten into a population that's just how the population's gonna be. So it makes sense that there's nothing to do about a lead-poisoned population other than stop adding more.

[spwa4]

> So it makes sense that there's nothing to do about a lead-poisoned population other than stop adding more.

Well the criticism is, of course, that lead poisoning, in most cases was the government doing it (e.g. Flint, and lead pipes in Europe). As for "nothing to be done" ... well, no. But that still leaves the government responsible for the damage (which in cases they had a private party to convict was lifetime care + damages).

Of course, governments decided, immediately, they weren't responsible.

Lead poisoning either kills you quickly (large doses, or you're already an adult) or turns you into an idiot, permanently (young kids, including in the womb)

> microplastics ...

No version of microplastics damages kids' brains, so it doesn't compare, really.

[LoganDark]

> No version of microplastics damages kids' brains, so it doesn't compare, really.

*we don't conclusively know what their effects are yet, but that's not the same thing as saying they definitively aren't harmful.

[skyberrys]

I guess having just read about the positive impact the bees have to develop into Queen bees I was wondering if there are positive chemicals a human female could produce to give better than average outcomes.

[moi2388]

Folic acid, vitamin D, iron, calcium, iodine, omega-3

[DANmode]

Folate, or methyl folate - NOT folic acid.

Unless you’re very sure you’re not MTHFR mutated.

[dimes]

Folic acid

[DANmode]

Folate, or methyl folate - NOT folic acid.

Unless you’re very sure you’re not MTHFR mutated.

[dimes]

https://www.cdc.gov/folic-acid/data-research/mthfr/index.htm...

> You may have heard that if you have an MTHFR variant, you should avoid folic acid and should take other types of folate, such as 5-MTHF. However, this is not true. People with an MTHFR gene variant can process all types of folate, including folic acid. Folic acid is the only type of folate shown to help prevent neural tube defects (NTDs).

[DANmode]

Sure - have someone you love go through being improperly supplemented with folic acid, and driven batty by the toxicity,

or have a relative told they don’t have chronic Lyme disease,

and then we’ll talk about the obvious bulletproof nature of the CDC.

[DANmode]

> People with an MTHFR gene variant can process all types of folate, including folic acid

Yes - just not WELL.

No different than: some people can survive eating a pound or two of red meat daily - some emphatically cannot.

[jgalt212]

> are usually encapsulated within the womb of an adult woman,

When are they not? Do you know of some scary experiments where human babies have been gestated outside the womb?

[dcrazy]

> In 2016, scientists published two studies regarding human embryos developing for thirteen days within an ecto-uterine environment.

> […]

> A 14-day rule prevents human embryos from being kept in artificial wombs longer than 14 days; this rule has been codified into law in twelve countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_womb

[jgalt212]

Seems like the answer is no, then.