egg
"The egg pattern is like a fingerprint," Lyon said. "It turns out that in most cases, the parasitism is done by females who have their own nests, and often it's the next-door neighbor, so by comparing the eggs in nearby nests we can tell who's doing it."
"The coating is like a little safety vest for the egg, keeping water and oxygen in and bad bacteria out. Washing can damage that layer and "increase the chances for bacterial invasion" into pores or hairline cracks in the shell, according to Yi Chen, a food scientist at Purdue University"
METAMIA is a free database of analogy and metaphor. Anyone can contribute or search. The subject matter can be anything. Science is popular, but poetry is encouraged. The goal is to integrate our fluid muses with the stark literalism of a relational database. Metamia is like a girdle for your muses, a cognitive girdle.