A mysterious cluster of unexplained birth defects is baffling health officials in a corner of Washington state.

A higher than average number of babies are being born with anencephaly, a severe birth defect in which children are born with part of their brain and skull missing. It is normally a rare condition, so when 23 cases were noted within a three year period between January 2010 and January 2013 in Yakima Valley, an agricultural area in south-central Washington, medical staff began to ask questions.
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Multicolored, Calico cats are the product of multiple fathers. Is it possible for a human child to have more than two parents? Researchers have discovered that it may be possible for children to have one father, but two mothers. This would make us less likely to inherit diseases, most of which come from the mother’s (mitochondrial) DNA.

A mother’s genetic contribution to her child comes in two separable parts. The largest is the 23 chromosomes in the nucleus of an unfertilized egg. The father also contributes 23 chromosomes in the sperm that fertilizes the egg.
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