Photo by The Q

Who says tweets aren’t news? Starting at 4 p.m., the National Zoo will be live-tweeting from an examination room as its scientists attempt to artificially inseminate the female giant panda Mei Xiang.

No, we are not making this up. In a matter of minutes, panda-watchers everywhere will be able to receive real-time updates of the latest attempt to create a younger brother or sister for our beloved Butterstick, as Mei Xiang will be injected with the sperm from Tian Tian.

“We don’t think it’s actually been done before,” says zoo spokeswoman Jennifer Zoon. “We wanted to try something new.”

The coming attempt to impregnate Mei Xiang will actually be the third in two days. Scientists at the zoo’s Center for Species Survival attempted an artificial insemination yesterday; additional insemination, Zoon says, raises the chances of pregnancy. Duh.

As for that third attempt? Well, yesterday Mei Xiang and Tian Tian tried to “breed naturally,” Zoon says. Yeah, there was some hot panda action going down on Sunday, but it was quickly determined that the intercourse was “not successful.”

Today’s insemination tweets, which can be found under the hashtag #pandaAI will be written by Dave Wildt, who runs the Center for Species Survival. We’ll be following along, too.