X is for Xenogenesis

X is for....omg, almost to the end of the A to Z challenge and I knew the X post would come. What word will I feature in an X post? Xray? XMen?, a favorite movie, at least the original, not the sequels so much. Generation X maybe?

Instead I go to the scrabble word page and stare, in awe, at the long list of words that begin with X. Then I began to look up definitions of these words I'd never heard before.

Xenogenesis is the word I settled upon for the X post. What's that? Well, it's a genetic result where an offspring is different than both of the parents.

OK. How can that happen? Well, just watch Xenogenesis, a 12 minute 1978 movie, one of James Cameron's first. The XMen actually are results of Xenogenesis.

Did you watch this Xenogenetic movie?

Or, far better, read Xenogenesis, a.k.a. Lilith's Brood! Lilith's Brood is three books, starting with Dawn, written in 1987, and explores an alien species, the Oankali, who rescue human survivors of earths nuclear destruction, brought on at the hands of humans themselves. The Oankali have three sexes, with the third being Ooloi. The Ooloi can mutate and evolve any living thing they touch, and build offspring, gene by gene, by using the genetic material of their male and female mates.

This skill would result in offspring different than both parents. Xenogenesis!

X is for Xenogenesis. Who knew?