It is more likely it specifically altered certain developmental pathways during that time of development at a transcriptional level.
It is surprising to me that no one has actually made the effort to determine exactly why it cause the birth defects it did.
That hypothesis is questionable.
This is not a hypothesis. It has been tested and verified.
It is surprising to me that no one has actually made the effort to determine exactly why it cause the birth defects it did.
Did you really believe that noone had done this?
From the BBC News Online January 25, 2001
The controversial drug Thalidomide is being used to help treat the most deadly form of lung cancer.
The drug became notorious in the 1960s when it was prescribed to pregnant women to ease morning sickness.
It was found to cause severe birth defects by limiting the blood flow to developing limbs. Many children were born limbless or with severely shortened limbs. Now scientists hope to use the blood limiting properties to help small cell lung cancer patients by starving the blood supply to tumors.
Researchers are already using Thalidomide in drugs trials to treat Kaposi's sarcoma (a type of cancer involving blood vessels in the skin) and brain cancer.