Chapter 122 Five Star Dishes

With the continuous allocation of various equipment, a comprehensively equipped and technologically advanced microbiology laboratory was quickly set up in the lobby on the first floor of Binhai Building. Under the leadership of two professors, Shen Lei and Wang Zhi, many scientists also gathered here. Subsequent experimental work began.

But as soon as the work began, experts discovered that the work was not easy.

At this moment, a scientist took out a total of more than twenty petri dishes from a special incubator.

Theoretically, after this period of special cultivation, there should be a large number of this new type of bacterium in the petri dish. But after putting it under a microscope for observation, Professor Shen found that what he saw was only a piece of liquid and a few miscellaneous bacteria.

Those miscellaneous bacteria are obviously external contamination. However, there is no new bacillus that we hope to cultivate.

However, the environment in the incubator and petri dish is as close as possible to the background environment inside the Binhai Building. If this new type of bacilli can live well in the Marina Building, there is no reason why they will all die in the incubator.

"Is there something wrong with the environmental parameters?"

At this moment, he could only put his doubts on this aspect.

Next, he made some fine-tuning of the environmental parameters and adopted multiple sets of comparisons. That is to say, multiple incubators and petri dishes are set up, and the environmental parameters of each incubator are close to the real environment. Some subtle adjustments are made to make different incubators have subtle differences.

There are so many incubators and so many different combinations of environmental parameters. Even if you try your luck, you can always hit one, right? It's impossible for all incubators to be dead, right?

But something unexpected happened again.

35 incubators, 35 different combinations of environmental parameters, none of them are suitable for the growth of this new type of bacterium! Follow-up inspections showed that the new bacilli scattered in these 35 incubators were once again completely extinct, with not a single one left!

This is a bit unreasonable.

"It doesn't make sense...what's the problem?"

At this moment, even well-informed experts couldn't help but fall into confusion.

"Equipment failure? Inaccurate environmental monitoring readings? Electromagnetic interference? Equipment pollution?"

"You would have died outside the Binhai Building, but this time you are going to die inside the building? Are you still being unreasonable?"

Professor Shen Lei did not believe in evil, while Lu Ming simply transferred technicians from the manufacturers of various experimental facilities to assist the scientists in checking the equipment, troubleshooting, and investigating possible hidden dangers.

Regarding Lu Ming's recruitment in the name of the public security department, various experimental equipment manufacturers attached great importance to it and dispatched technical teams personally led by senior leaders such as chief engineers, chief scientists, and scientific directors. A large group of people gathered around the Binhai Building, checking every detail, including the site environment, current, voltage, signal interference and other aspects, from beginning to end.

"Chief Inspector Lu, Professor Shen, Professor Wang, as you can see, there is no problem with our equipment."

At this moment, the chief engineer and chief scientists also looked very helpless: "You see, it is completely normal to cultivate other bacterial strains. We suggest that you look for problems outside of the equipment."

The huge technical team comes and goes like the wind. They came in a hurry, solved their problems, and left in a hurry.

Professor Shen Lei was furious.

"No more breeding! Just take the original specimen!"

The so-called original specimens are objects taken directly from the internal environment of Marina Building. For example, a piece of wall paper, a sticker on the wall, a speck of dust on the ground, etc. Professor Shen directly took these things and put them into the equipment to start inspection and observation.

This time, he left the specimens undisturbed. He just continued to observe and record the changes in the new bacterium over time.

So, he was surprised to see that even so, those new bacteria would still die.

They gradually lose their vitality, move slower and slower, and eventually become completely motionless, then melt into the background environment, as if they had never appeared before.

The only point worth paying attention to is that compared to outside the Marina Building, the death rate of these bacilli taken for observation is much slower inside the Marina Building.

Specially conducted controlled experiments have shown that all novel bacilli, whether in the original specimen or in a petri dish or the like, will die within a maximum of half an hour away from the Marina Building.

In the Binhai Building, their death speed was extended to more than two hours.

But the most fundamental problem has still not been solved.

In other words, why do they die as soon as we take them out for observation?

You know, they live well in the natural environment inside the Marina Building.

This much is certain. Professor Shen Lei knew that in the natural environment at this moment, there was absolutely no large-scale death of this new bacterium. Because if that happens, then the new type of bacilli in the Marina Building have long since died out, and they should no longer be observed in the specimens I collected.

Their death is definitely related to their own collection. But the key point is, why?

No one can answer this question.

After the result was signed by multiple experts and endorsed for its accuracy and authenticity, it was submitted to Lu Ming. Facing this result, Lu Ming felt helpless.

He did not expect that he would face such a situation as soon as the experiment started.

Ensuring that the bacilli are alive, growing and forming colonies is the basis for all subsequent experiments.

Only in this way can we confirm their living habits, interaction mechanism with the external environment, and their own functions. Now, if you can't even pass the most basic level, how can you talk about the follow-up?

After thinking about it, Lu Ming simply said: "Is this possible? Since we can't cultivate it, we won't cultivate it. We can directly take out the bacterial strain specimens from the natural environment and start follow-up research directly while they are still alive."

Professor Shen smiled bitterly and said, "I'm afraid it won't be easy."

"Try it, check as much as you can, and whatever you can find counts."

Faced with Lu Ming's insistence, Professor Shen could only accept it.

So the subsequent experiments were carried out under this extremely unprofessional and make-do situation.

Professor Shen Lei is indeed a top microbiology expert. Despite various unfavorable factors and constraints, research on this new type of bacterium is slowly beginning to yield results.

"Take the Rs7 test strips."

"It's a dehydrogenase."

"Reagent No. 6, hurry! This thing is going to die!"

"The body structure of this gadget is unexpectedly complicated..."

The entire experiment lasted two full days. Two days later, the team led by Professor Shen and Professor Wang reluctantly announced the end of the work.

Due to the limited experimental conditions, at this moment, all the tests and experiments that can be performed have been carried out. Everything that can be discovered has been discovered. If the experimental conditions are not improved, there is basically no hope of discovering anything later.

However, at this moment, we don’t even know what is the cause, what mechanism, and what principle causes the death of this new type of bacterium, so how can we improve the experimental conditions?

No matter what, Lu Ming had to agree to end the experiment temporarily.

"We will input all the data discovered at this stage into the simulation model, and then use supercomputer to simulate it. This will take about a day."

"good."

It is not yet certain whether this new type of bacterium can secrete the phobic toxins and corrosive substances that caused serious structural damage to the Marina Tower. Because their "experimental life" is too short, it is too late and impossible to conduct testing in this area.

Then the only option is to simulate. Input the body structure of this bacterium, the various enzymes, various hormones, and the composition of various elements in the body into the model, simulate it, and try to see if they can actually synthesize that compound. .

Because the molecular formula of the fear toxin is now known, this simulation is possible. Otherwise, your eyes will be darkened, and you will not know which direction to verify, and this kind of simulation will be impossible to talk about.

One day later, Professor Wang Zhi found Lu Ming again.

"The simulation results are out."

He handed a document to Lu Ming. Lu Ming took a look and found that it was full of inexplicable symbols, which seemed to involve some extremely complex chemical transformation.

Lu Ming is not a biologist and can hardly understand this at all. But based on just a superficial understanding of biochemistry, he saw at least seventeen enzymes participating in the catalysis of a certain chemical reaction, with at least dozens of different pathways. His head was filled with excitement. question mark.

He turned his attention away from the document and looked at Professor Wang Zhi, waiting for his further explanation.

"Based on the existing data, we can only confirm that this new type of bacterium...is theoretically capable of synthesizing terrorist toxins."

Lu Ming perked up, but then he noticed the caution in Professor Wang Zhi's words.

"What do you mean theoretically?"

Wang Zhi spread his hands: "Just like giving you some seasonings and ingredients, theoretically speaking, you also have the possibility to turn it into a five-star dish."

Lu Ming thought for a moment and nodded slowly.

All the ingredients needed for the "five-star dish" called photoxin are present in this new type of bacterium. Moreover, during the simulation, Wang Zhi also found a synthesis pathway.

So theoretically speaking, this new type of bacterium does have the ability to synthesize terrorist toxins.

However, what it looks like in reality is still uncertain because there is no definite evidence.