Posts tagged ‘DNA’
PLUMBING PROBLEMS: PART XIII
The beginning of the lab book dealt with his theories, the purpose of his research. His interest was in natural products, but he wasn’t interested in the usual source that was exploited, plant life; he was interested in the natural peptides found in marine life. His work took yet another turn. Once a molecule was discovered in a plant demonstrating its promise in fighting a disease, chemists would take over and refine the molecule, increasing its potency until they had a drug. Worthy’s method was quite different. When he found a peptide in an animal that he felt he could improve upon, he searched for another animal that produced a similar peptide that would complement the actions of the first. The product, he hoped, would be more potent than the sum of the two individual peptides. He would isolate the DNA from the two animals, then cut and splice the DNA, inject the DNA into a DNA depleted sea urchin egg and await the results. If he met with any success, the result would be an animal the likes of which the world had never seen. He would also make an insert that would allow the animal to have an increased response to growth hormone – the bigger the animal the more the peptide to harvest. Worthy then created the correct environment for the cells to start multiplying. Soon an embryo was formed, and then the animal itself.
Along with his notes were Polaroid photos of the resulting animals. One experiment combining two creatures of interest was the union of the genes of a hammerhead shark and a catfish found in Florida.
Hammerhead shark, I thought to myself. I recalled the description of the fish Jack had found. “Had a head shaped like a pipe,” he said. A hammerhead shark, in an advanced state of decomposition, with its body twisted might look like an animal with a head shaped like a pipe. One aspect of this combination really frightened me, and that was the curious properties of the catfish part of this animal. This catfish was able, when the water in which it lived began drying up, to walk short distances using its fins. I recalled when ‘JAWS’ was first published and then made into a movie; people thought the ocean wasn’t safe. If this critter got loose, not only would the water not be safe, but the shore as well. I continued to read the lab book and look at the pictures of bizarre animals. Many entries finished with the comment – results unsatisfactory, experiment terminated.
April 18, 2024 at 2:55 pm
PLUMBING PROBLEMS: PART XII
I started down the stairs. This may have been a root cellar or storm shelter at one time, but Marcus Worthy had converted the huge room into a laboratory. The room was about forty by forty feet, almost the size of the barn above. I gazed at equipment I was familiar with, equipment I used myself as a scientist. I recognized a PCR machine for copying DNA, and set-ups for gels used to analyze DNA and RNA. There was also the usual lab paraphernalia, centrifuges, a microscope and various types of glassware and lab books. In the corner stood a liquid nitrogen storage cylinder. It was a well-organized lab. Opening the door to the refrigerator, I saw kits for isolating DNA and RNA along with the probes necessary to do the work. There were probes for sharks and various other types of marine life – jellyfish, starfish, and other invertebrates. Apparently Worthy decided to do some scientific studies on his own. He had the money and I guess just wanted to go where his mind took him.
Studying the lab and its supplies more closely something started going off in the far reaches of my mind. I tried to recall the first conversation I had with Jack. How he found that strange fish in the field, its description totally puzzled me. I reached for what I hoped would clear up all the mysteries this place possessed; I opened Worthy’s lab book. Marcus Worthy’s notes were meticulous.
April 17, 2024 at 2:54 pm
I’m sure you’ve read multiple blogs and messages wishing you ‘Happy New Year’. Well of course I wish you that, but I also wish you a ‘Productive New Year’. Whatever you do, do more of it and do it well. Make this a year you’re proud of and can look back on with happiness. I’m going to try to accomplish those goal. We’ll see what happens.
He is the better writer by about 100 orders of magnitude, but I’m trying to catch up.
But seriously, I am in the process of reading his novel, The Songs of Distant Earth. I was lucky enough to be able to search a mass of science fiction novels donated to a small local library. Books for which no room existed. When I saw this novel in the boxes of donations, I immediately acquired the book to bring home. I’m happy I did for now a novel I planned to write, formally on the back burner, is now going into the incinerator.
Let me explain.
I had written a short story, December Omen, as yet unpublished. I will try to find this work a home in the coming year. The work dealt with the end of the world, not a unique subject, but I thought I had a lock on a new scenario. Turns out, Clark beat me to it. We both end the world, but by different means. We both send mankind into the cosmos in order to survive. I through frozen embryos; Clark through genetic material and robotic factories to manufacture mankind on some remote Earth-like planet.
At this point, let me include a fact I know I read somewhere. Whether it is reality or conjecture I do not remember. Chalk that up to maturity (senility). The article dealt with DNA, a very stable molecule, and the possibility to incorporate information using its structure. What a concept! How much information could reside in a gram of DNA?
However, what inspired this piece was a common scenario in both our stories. In the new planet was created no religions would exist. For reasons look at today’s newspaper or read a little history. I could not believe Arthur C. Clark and I had the same thoughts. The commonality, unfortunately, ends in that single instant.
January 4, 2016 at 7:14 pm
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