Students turn a regular egg into a baby chick in mind-blowing experiment

We may finally have an answer to that age-old chicken or the egg question.

A group of students from Chiba, Japan have done the unthinkable, turning a shell-less egg into a normal, healthy baby chick.

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The mind-blowing experiment was conducted in the students' high school classroom with the help of their biology teacher, Mr. Tahara.

Captured on video for a Japanese television show, the footage shows the group prepping and planning before conducting the seemingly simple play-by-play.

They begin by stretching out a piece of plastic wrap out, which is eventually used to suspend the fertilized, cracked egg in a plastic cup. According to Daily Mail, two liquid solutions are also placed in the cup, one "to aid growth" and the other to "help development."

The cups are then placed in an incubator where they sit for a total of 21 days, all of which is documented by the students.

By day three, the egg has already formed a heartbeat. On day five, the embryo can be seen taking shape -- and a week later, veins have spread all throughout the yolk.

The footage shows the gradual progression of the unborn chick, which emerges from the shell, fully formed on the twenty-first day.
While the video claims that this is the first time in history this experiment has been done, The Daily Mail says that a similar process was outlined in a chapter of a US biology textbook from 1993.

Whether they were the first to prevail with the experiment or not, the students' incredible findings will help scientists gather valuable data on the chick's growth process as well as find new insights into genetic engineering.

This is also helpful for the repopulation of endangered bird species, as the hatch rate for the experiment yields about a 50 percent success rate.