Chapter 38 Section thirty-seven

In the museum's attached botany lab, a loud sneeze sounded like an explosion, rattling beakers and knocking dried plant specimens out of place. "I'm sorry," Chuanbei apologized, sniffling, "allergy." "I have tissues." Margot said, going to rummage through the bag.She was listening to Kawakita describe his gene extrapolator program.Great, she thought, but the theory behind it was probably Flock's. "In short, Chuanbei said that starting from the gene sequences of two animals or plants, this is the input condition. The result is extrapolation: the computer estimates the evolution chain between the two species. The program automatically matches DNA fragments, compares similar sequences, and then Extrapolate possible species. As an example, I'll do it with chimpanzee and human DNA. You'll get a description of some transitional species."

"The missing link," Margot nodded, "don't tell me that the program can still give a portrait of this animal." "Of course it can't be done!" Chuanbei laughed, "Otherwise I would have won the Nobel Prize. The program can give a list of morphological and behavioral characteristics that this animal or plant may have. It is not 100% accurate, but it is very likely .And the list is definitely not complete. You'll see the results when the trial is over." He entered a series of commands, and the data streamed across the computer screen: continuous 0s and 1s that rose and fell like waves. "You can turn off the output," Chuanbei said, "but I like watching the computer download data from the gene sequencer. It's as beautiful as looking at the river. It's better to have salmon in the river."

Five minutes later, the data stream stops and the screen goes blank with a soft blue glow.Then Moy's face from "The Three Stooges" appeared, speaking through the computer speakers, "I tried and tried, but I couldn't get anywhere!" "It means that the program is running," Chuanbei was amused by the joke he designed. "According to the difference between the two species, it may take an hour." A message pops up on the screen: "Chimpanzees and humans are very close, 98 percent genetically identical, so this calculation was pretty fast."

A light bulb suddenly lit up above Moy's head. "It's over!" Chuanbei said, "Now please see the result." He hits a button and the screen appears: "Believe it or not," Kawakita said, "the program identified the two species just by their genetics. I didn't tell the computer what they were. That's a good way to show skeptics that the extrapolator is not a fraud or a toy. All in all, we got a description of the transitional species. In this case, as you said: the missing link." Morphological characteristics of transitional species: The list goes on and on, getting more and more obscure. In the column of "Osteology", Margot hardly understood anything.

Margot thought to herself: This must be the meaning of thick brows. "Come on, how could the program predict this?" Margo asked, pointing to the single match. "Hormones," Kawakita replied, "there's a gene that determines the presence of a hormone that's only present in monogamous mammals, not hybrids. In humans, the hormone is associated with pair bonding. Chimpanzees do not have this hormone, and chimpanzees are notoriously hybrid animals. Females have a suppressed estrous cycle, a phenomenon that occurs only in relatively monogamous species. My program has a whole set of tools, using sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms and Fuzzy logic, which interprets the manifestations of various genes into the behavior and appearance of the target species."

"Artificial intelligence algorithm? Fuzzy logic? I don't understand." Margo said. "Well, that's okay, you don't need to know all the secrets in it. It's all about getting the program to think more like a human than a computer. The program uses intuition and makes educated guesses. For example, the word 'cooperate' Traits were extrapolated from the presence or absence of about eighty different genes." "That's all?" Margo joked. "Of course not," Kawakita replied. "You can also just input the DNA of one organism, turn off the extrapolation logic, and let the program guess its size, shape, and behavior. If the funds are all right, I plan to add more." Two modules. One can extrapolate backward in time from a single species, and the other can extrapolate forward in time. In other words, we can not only gain insight into extinct organisms, but also guess what future organisms will look like .” He smiled, “Not bad, right?”

"It's amazing," said Margot.In contrast, she felt that her research project was so trivial, "How did you develop it?" Chuanbei hesitated for a moment, and looked at Margot with some doubts. "When I first started working with Flock, he said that the gaps in the fossil record were giving him a headache. He said he wanted to fill in the gaps, and wanted to know what transitional species looked like. So I wrote this program. Most of the rule sheets came from Flock. Locke. We tested the program on different samples. Chimpanzees and humans, and various bacteria that we already have a lot of genetic data. Then, the unthinkable happened. The old devil Flock expected it, but I didn't. We used Pair a dog and a hyena, and you get not a smooth transition, but a bizarre life form that bears no resemblance to either the dog or the hyena. The same goes for several other pairs. Know what Flock says ?”

Margo shook her head. "He just smiled and said, 'Now you see the real value of this program,'" Kawakita shrugged. "You see, my program showed that very small changes in DNA can sometimes change organisms dramatically, thus proving Flock's theory of the Callisto effect. I'm a little annoyed, but that's what Flock does." "It's no wonder Flock wanted me to use this program so much," Margot said. "It could revolutionize evolutionary research." "Yeah, it's a pity that no one takes it seriously," Kawakita said gloomily. "Nowadays, having a relationship with Flock is like being kissed by the god of death. It's too embarrassing to devote yourself to one thing and be ignored by the scientific community." Painful. Tell you Margo - don't tell anyone - I'm thinking of ditching Flock as a mentor, plus Ty Cuthbert's team. I should be able to bring most of the work over there. You should too It's over."

"Thanks, but I'm going to stay with Flock," Margo said, offended. "If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be studying genetics at all. I owe him a lot." "Whatever you want," Kawakita said, "but you don't have to stay in the museum anyway, do you? At least that's what Bill Smithback said. But I put my heart and soul into it here. My philosophy is, except You don't owe anyone to yourself. Look at the museum: look at Wright, Cuthbert, and all the staff. Don't they think of anyone but themselves? We're scientists, you and I are. We know Survival of the fittest, knowing 'nature's fangs and claws, red with blood.' And scientists, too, strive to survive."

Margo looked into Chuanbei's shining eyes.He also has his reasons.But Margot believes that since human beings can understand the cruel laws of nature, they may be able to surpass certain rules. She changed the subject: "So the extrapolator can handle plant DNA as well as animal DNA?" "The principle is exactly the same," Chuanbei resumed his scholarly demeanor, "run two plant samples with a DNA sequencer, and download the data to the extrapolator. The extrapolator can tell you how close the two plants are, and then describe the transition." The shape of a species. Don't be surprised if you see a program ask or comment. I put a lot of thought into developing this little artificial intelligence of mine."

"I see what you mean," said Margot, "thanks, your work is amazing." Chuanbei winked and bent down: "Son, you owe me a favor." "Anytime," said Margot.child.owe him a favor.She doesn't like other people talking like that, not to mention Chuanbei doesn't seem to be joking. Chuanbei straightened up, and sneezed again: "I'm off work. I'm going to have lunch, and then go home to pack the evening dress for the evening reception. I really don't know why I came in. Everyone else is at home preparing. You see , there is no one in the laboratory." "Evening dress?" said Margo. "I brought it to work in the morning. It's pretty, but not some fancy Nipen design." Chuanbei approached her and said, "Margo, clothes make people successful. If you wear a T-shirt and fall into the eyes of those in power, even if you are a genius, they will not think you are like a museum curator." "You want to be the curator?" "That's needless to say?" Chuanbei said in surprise, "Don't you want to?" "Isn't it enough to study science seriously?" "Anyone can study science seriously, but I want to play a more important role in the future. As a curator, I must promote scientific development more than a researcher messing around in a shabby laboratory. These days, great achievements alone Not enough." He patted Margot on the back, "Have fun. Don't break things." He walked out of the laboratory, and the room fell silent. Margo sat silently for a moment, then opened the paper folder containing the Kilipitu herbarium.However, she couldn't help feeling that there were more important things to be done.Margo had called Flock earlier to tell how she hadn't found much in the crate, and Flock had become eerily quiet.It was as if all fighting spirit suddenly disappeared.His voice was so dejected that Margot didn't even dare to tell him that although they had found the log, there wasn't much new in it. Margo looked at her watch: it was past one.Sequencing the genes of Kilibitu plant samples one by one is time-consuming, and she had to finish the sequencing before she could use the extrapolator.But as Flock reminds me, this is the first systematic study of a primitive plant taxonomy.Through Kawakita's procedure, she was able to determine whether the Kilibitu tribe, with their extensive knowledge of plants, had biologically classified plants.The program can give transitional plants, hypothetical species that may actually have counterparts in the Kilibitu rainforest.That's roughly what Flock thinks. To sequence the DNA of a plant, Margot must take samples from various parts of the specimen.After countless emails back and forth this morning, she finally got permission to sample 0.1 grams from each specimen.This amount is just enough for analysis. Looking at those fragile specimens, she smelled a faint scent of spice and grass.Some plants are powerful hallucinogens and are used in religious ceremonies of the Kilibitu tribe; others are likely to be of great value to modern science. She picked up the first plant with tweezers, cut off the top part of the leaf with an X-Acto knife, put it in a mortar, crushed it with a pestle, mixed in a milder enzyme, dissolved the cellulose and nucleus, and released the DNA. .Dexterously but carelessly, she added the appropriate enzymes, centrifuged, titrated; and then did the same with several other plants. The final centrifugation step took ten minutes. While the centrifuge was vibrating in the metal casing, Margo rested on the back of the chair, full of thoughts.I don't know what happened to Smithback, the museum pariah.Don't know how Mrs. Rickman will react when she finds out that the journal is missing - Margot can't help being a little scared.She thought about Jorgensen's words, and how Whitsey described his last days on earth.She imagined the old woman pointing at the statue in the crate with her wrinkled fingers, warning Whitser of the curse.She imagined the scene: the abandoned hut, the vines were overgrown, and the mosquitoes and flies were buzzing in the sun.Where did the old woman come from?And why run away?She pictured Whitsey taking a deep breath and stepping into the dark, mysterious hut for the first time... Hold on, she thought.The log says they met the old woman first, and then walked into the abandoned hut.However, the letter she found stuffed in the lid of the box clearly stated that Whitsey had found the statue in the hut.After the old woman ran away, he entered the hut. The old woman didn't shout that Mbawang was in the crate because she saw the statue!She calls whatever else in the crate Mbawan!However, no one realized this, because they did not find Whitsey's letter.The only evidence they had was logs, so it was taken for granted that Mbawang was the statue. However, they were wrong. Mbawang, the real Mbawang, is not a statue at all.What did the old woman say?Now the white men are coming to take Mbawang away.Beware, Mbawang's curse will destroy you!You bring death upon your fellow man! Isn't this exactly what's happening right now?Death came to the museum.But what was the old woman talking about in the crate? Margo took out the notebook in her bag and quickly listed what she saw in Whitsey's crate yesterday: Specimen holder with plant dart and blowgun Carved Stone Dishes (found in huts) Lip plate Five or six specimen bottles containing frogs or salamanders (I think) Birdskin Arrowheads and Spearheads Shaman's Rattle square cloth What else?She rummaged through the bag.The specimen holders, stone discs and shamanic rattles are all still there.She took it out and put it on the table. The broken shaman rattle is interesting, but nothing out of the ordinary.She had seen several more exotic items at the Superstition Fair. The stone discs are blurry, and what seems to be carvings are rituals. People are standing by the lake, bowing their waists. Some people are holding plants and carrying baskets on their backs.very unusual.But it doesn't seem like a cult item. A list doesn't help.There wasn't a single item in the crate that was even remotely demonic that was likely to strike the old woman with a strong sense of dread. Margo carefully unscrewed the small rusty specimen holder, the screw and plywood holding the blotter.She gently opened the specimen folder and lifted the first layer of paper. Inside is the stem of a plant and a few small flowers.She hadn't seen the plant before, but at first glance it didn't look particularly interesting. The second layer of the specimen holder is flowers and leaves.These are not specimens collected by professional botanists, Margo thought.Whitsey, an anthropologist, collected these specimens perhaps simply because they stood out and were unusual.But why?After digging through all the specimens, Margo finally saw the note she was looking for: "On September 16, 1987, collected in a deserted lush garden near the hut (belonging to the Kosoga tribe?). Perhaps it was a plant planted artificially. But some may also be invasive species after abandonment.” Next to it is a small sketch of a lush garden, pointing out the different locations of the various plants.An anthropologist, thought Margot: not a botanist after all.Still, she admired Whitsey for his interest in studying the relationship between the Kosoga tribe and plants. She continued to look and noticed a plant: a long, fibrous stem topped by a single round leaf.Margot realized it was an aquatic plant, similar to a water lily.Maybe live in an area that is prone to flooding. Then she realized that the plant was also in the picture carved on the stone dish of the hut.Margo examines the stone dish carefully: it depicts people ritually harvesting the bog plant.People's facial expressions are distorted and full of mourning.How strange.Finding the link, though, was gratifying to Margo; it might turn into a short paper in the Journal of Ethnobotany. Margo pushed the stone plate away, installed the specimen holder, and tightened the screws.There was a beep in the ear: the centrifugation is complete, and the preparation is complete. She turned on the centrifuge, inserted the glass rod into the thin layer of material at the bottom of the test tube, took it out and carefully spread it on the gel, then put the gel dish in the electrophoresis machine, her finger reaching for the switch.Another half hour to wait, she thought. Margo stopped suddenly, her finger on the switch.Again and again her mind turned to the mystery of the old woman and Mbawang.Could it be the pods the old woman was talking about?Those pods that look like eggs?No way, Maxwell had taken the pods, they weren't in Whitsey's crate.Could it be some frog or salamander in the vial?Could it be some bird skin?But those things are hardly at the heart of the Devilchild lore.It couldn't be the plants in the garden because they were all in the specimen folder. what is it then?Is the crazy old woman talking nonsense? Margot sighed and sat back down.She put the specimen holder and the stone dish in her bag, and swept away the few strands of stuffing fiber stuck to the specimen holder, that is, the stuffing fiber in the crate.There are several more of these in the bag.Another reason to clean up your bags. Filled with fiber. Out of curiosity, she picked up one with tweezers, flattened it on a glass slide, and placed it on the stage of a binocular microscope.The fiber was long and irregular, like the fibrous veins of some kind of stem plant.It may have been run down by Kosoga women for some sort of daily need.Through the microscope, she could see individual cells shimmering, the nucleus appearing brighter than the ectoplasm. Her thoughts returned to Whitsey's journal.Whitsue mentions that the specimen bottle was broken, so he needs to rebox it, right?So they must have discarded the old formalin-soaked fill material near the abandoned hut and refilled the crates with some material they found near the abandoned hut.Probably the plant fibers made by the Kosoga tribe, mostly for weaving coarse cloth or twisting them into ropes. Could it be these fibers that the old woman was talking about?Seems unlikely.But Margot was still professionally curious.Are the Kosoga tribes really growing this plant? She pulled out a few fibers, put them in another mortar, added a few drops of enzymes, and ground them into a powder.By doing a gene sequence, you can use Chuanbei's program to identify its genus or family. Before long, the DNA samples extracted by centrifugation from the fibers are ready for electrophoresis.Margot followed the standard procedure step by step, and finally turned on the power.A black band begins to form gradually along the electrophoretic gel. Half an hour later, the red light on the electrophoresis instrument went out, and Margot took out the gel plate, recorded the positions of the dots and bands composed of nucleotide aggregation, and then entered the results into the computer. She tapped the last location, told Kawakita's program to search for a match among known organisms, set the output to printout, and sat and waited.After a long time, the printout began to spit out the results. The computer printed at the top of the first page: Oh my God!Margo, what did you put in there?I don't even know if it's an animal or a plant.You won't believe how much CPU time it took me to figure it out! Margo couldn't help laughing.Is this how Chuanbei's artificial intelligence tries to communicate with the outside world?Sure enough, he is very good at talking.The results are ridiculous.How could it be unknown?The damn program doesn't even know if it's an animal or a plant.Margot suddenly understood why Chuanbei didn't want to show her the procedure at first, and had to call Flock himself to arrange it.Once the program goes out of the known field, it will be dizzy. She skimmed through the results.The computer identified only a few genes, common to almost all living things: several proteins involved in the respiratory cycle, cytochrome Z, and other ubiquitous genes.There were also genes related to cellulose, chlorophyll, and sugar, and Margot knew that these were genes unique to plants. She enters after the wait sign: The computer pauses for a moment. Margot thought to herself: Well said.She dialed into the GenLab with a modem, and the familiar blue logo quickly appeared on the screen.She uploaded the fiber's DNA data and searched their plant library.Same result: almost nothing.Only the most common sugar and chlorophyll genes were identified. On impulse, she expanded her search to the entire database. After waiting for a while, information flooded the screen.Margo pressed a few keys quickly, ordering the terminal to capture data.The system identified several genes she had never heard of. She quit GenLab and fed the received data to Chuanbei's program, asking the program to tell what protein-coding genes it was. Complicated lists scroll across the screen, listing the proteins controlled by each gene. Limboid protetraglycine Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (2,6-Adenine) [Gram-Positive] 1,2,3-Pituitary-4-Monopituitary-Suppressing Hormone 2,4-Diglyceride-Diethyl Cycloalanine globulin A, xy, L-positively charged hypothalamic corticotropin-releasing hormone, L-negatively charged 1-1-1 creatine sulfate (2, 3 murine) drug barrier coat Tablet, III-IV pair combined hexagonal phase amyloid reovirus protein capsid reverse transcriptase list is endlessly long.Many looked like hormones, she thought: Which hormones? She saw a copy of the Encyclopedia of Biochemistry busy gathering dust on the shelf, and she picked it up and started looking up collagen-like tetraglycine: a protein found in most vertebrates that helps muscle tissue attach to cartilage. She continued to scroll backwards, looking for "Sukkno's Thyrotropin." A hypothalamic hormone found in mammals controlled by the pituitary gland. Horrible thoughts gradually took shape.She went on to look up the next entry, "1,2,3-Pituitary-4-MonoPituitary-Suppressing Hormone": a hormone secreted by the human hypothalamus.Function is unclear.Recent research suggests that it may regulate blood testosterone levels during periods of high stress. (Bouchard, 1992; Denison, 1991). Margot sat up abruptly, and the book fell with a hollow thud.She grabbed the phone and glanced at the clock: three thirty.