Chapter 1030 Infection or Evolution?

In the No. 1 conference room of Yuehuatai Outpost Scientific Research Base, scientific researchers and medical experts from various countries were flipping through the report documents in front of them.

The data transmitted back from the Hanhai space shuttle clearly recorded the physical conditions of the four astronauts who boarded the moon.

Among the four infected patients, the one with the mildest symptoms is the captain of the team, Zhai Zhigang. Currently, apart from his body temperature reaching about 39 degrees, he has not shown any other symptoms.

If it were an ordinary person living on earth, a body temperature of thirty-nine degrees would be considered a high fever.

However, for an astronaut in outer space, a body temperature of 39°C cannot be judged as a high fever. For astronauts, this level of body temperature can actually be considered a normal range.

Of course, considering his current encounter with Martian microbial infection and his previous normal body temperature, a body temperature of 39 degrees Celsius can be seen as a sign that his immunity is stronger or his constitution is relatively special. He is temporarily in the incubation period of infection or already has a certain immunity to Martian bacterial infection. force.

It's just that all this has to wait until they return to the moon base to conduct a comprehensive physical examination to find out what is going on.

Compared with Zhai Zhigang, who has the mildest symptoms, the physical condition of Liu Yang, the only female among the four astronauts, is not optimistic.

Judging from the physical examination report, she has suffered from hair loss, loose nails and other problems.

The most serious situation is the condition of her skin. In just one month after returning from Mars to the moon, her skin has developed inhuman structural properties.

The formerly soft human skin tissue is now covered with a layer of silicone protein compounds.

Judging from a series of symptoms, this female astronaut is gradually evolving from a human into a half-carbon-based and half-silicon-based life form similar to "diatoms".

The only thing that makes people feel a little more reassured is that there are no problems with her current physical fitness. She can still eat, drink and sleep, and she even has more energy than before.

This strange situation left all the scientific researchers and medical experts present puzzled.

After all, under normal circumstances, after the human body is infected by foreign bacteria and viruses, the immune system will activate and use various means to clean up the bacteria and viruses that enter the human body.

During this process, the human body usually loses its ability to regulate body temperature, decreases its resistance, and suffers from physical weakness, lethargy, and other conditions.

But in Liu Yang's case, except for the increase in body temperature, which matches the above, almost all other infection symptoms do not match, which is confusing.

In the conference room, after waiting for about ten minutes for scientific researchers and medical experts from various countries to read the report documents, Professor Ke Jianhua, who was sitting at the head of the meeting and presided over the meeting, knocked on the table and drew everyone's attention. He asked in a deep voice.

"Everyone, what do you think about the four astronauts infected by Martian microbial bacteria?"

In the conference room, Professor Matthew Webster from the Planck Institute of Microbiology put down the report document in his hand and spoke with interest.

"I think it's probably not an infection."

Hearing this opinion, everyone in the conference room suddenly looked over.

Matthew Webster's eyes met Ke Jianhua, who was sitting in the front seat, with an interested look on his face as he continued:

"Although I am not a doctor, as a microbiologist, I know very well the normal response of the human body after infection with various bacterial viruses."

"Various states such as fever, vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, lethargy, etc. are all responses taken by the human immune system to eliminate viruses or microorganisms that infect the body."

"But it is clear that the physical conditions of these four astronauts did not appear similar, which means that their body immune systems did not mount an immune response to these invaders."

"So in my opinion, they are not infected."

At the top of the list, Professor Ke Jianhua frowned and said, "However, the body temperatures of the four astronauts all increased, and infections such as Martian microorganisms were confirmed in the excrement."

"No no no!"

Matthew Webster shook his head and replied: "This does not prove that they are infected."

“In my opinion, rather than using the term infection with Martian microbial bacteria, I prefer to call it the co-evolution of Martian microorganisms and humans!”

"Co-evolution?"

"That's right!"

Matthew Webster nodded vigorously and smiled: "Yes, co-evolution! In my opinion, this is another evolutionary journey of mankind!"

"Since the first apes evolved millions of years ago and mastered the use of tools, the biggest turning point in the history of human evolution has been learning to use fire. The control of fire has enabled humans to move towards the rapid development of modern humans. The path of evolution.”

"Scientifically speaking, this process lasted until the era of Homo sapiens about 200,000 years ago."

"But in my opinion, this process continued until 50,000 years ago, and humans at that time were not much different from modern humans."

"And over the past 50,000 years, human evolution has been quite slow, and it can even be said to have been suspended."

"As for the reason for the cessation or slow evolution, it may be that there are no creatures in the external environment that can threaten Homo sapiens, or it may be the conditions that allow Homo sapiens to further evolve. The use of fire and the cooked food brought by it can only allow humans to evolve to To this extent now.”

"But now, a new opportunity for evolution has appeared!"

"Yes, it's these Martian microorganisms!"

"They can coexist with humans and lead humans to a new evolutionary path!"

In the conference room, noisy discussions arose, and many people were very interested in this new 'evolutionary theory'.

Indeed, according to the current physical condition of the four astronauts on board the Hanhai space shuttle, it is indeed very consistent with the state described by Professor Matthew Webster.

These Martian microorganisms may not be too harmful to humans. On the contrary, they can help humans embark on a new evolutionary path.

Someone asked: "Then what will they eventually evolve into?"

Matthew Webster shook his head and said: "I'm afraid I can't give an answer to this question for the time being. They are still in the early stages of evolution. Only time can give an answer to the extent to which they will eventually evolve."

"Judging from the current data, they may evolve to be more adaptable to harsh ecological environments than current humans, such as oxygen-free Mars, colder ecology, etc."

After a slight pause, he looked at the first Professor Ke Jianhua with excitement and expectation, and suggested: "I suggest that these four astronauts can be arranged in independent closed base rooms to see how they interact with these Martian microorganisms. What will it evolve into if stimulated?"

"This is definitely a very important moment for the development of mankind! I apply to join the observation organization"

Seeing the excitement of Professor Matthew Webster, Professor Ke Jianhua had a headache on his face.

He couldn't help but knocked on the table again, interrupting the other party's eloquence, rubbed his eyebrows and said:

"Perhaps your theory may be right, but what we want to discuss now is not how to evolve humans, but how to stop this infection to save the lives of our astronauts."

Hearing this question, the conference room suddenly became quiet again.

Dalton Mack, a professor of exobiology at NASA, said: "It's difficult. Based on the current data alone, we simply don't know how to deal with these microorganisms from Mars."

"There is no way to conduct live bacterial infection experiments on the Hanhai space shuttle, and we have no way of knowing what type of drugs can kill these little things."

"To truly find a solution, we can only get four astronauts back to the moon as soon as possible to start research."

Ke Jianhua glanced at the NASA expert and said nothing.

This Professor Dalton is talking nonsense. If it is not difficult, what are they doing to the whole world by letting go of the opportunity to study microorganisms on Mars?

The meeting lasted for about an hour, but it was obvious that no effective opinions or solutions were gained from this routine meeting.

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Although he knew that it would be difficult to find a truly effective solution based only on the data transmitted by the Hanhai space shuttle, Professor Ke Jianhua, who was in charge of presiding over the meeting, was still disappointed.

After all, for him, this is the life of four Chinese astronauts.

Although judging from the current physical examination data, the lives of the four fire climbing teams are not in danger for the time being. Even Liu Yang, who is the most seriously infected, has no significant changes in various life indicators except for some changes in his body structure. of decline.

Even to another extent, due to the influence of Martian microorganisms and bacteria, her body metabolism and cell activity have actually improved.

From a certain physiological point of view, this is a sign that she has become more 'strong' and 'healthy'.

However, no one knows what this mutation will make her look like.

With some concerns, Professor Ke Jianhua compiled the contents of today's meeting and sent them back to Earth Headquarters via relay satellite.

Meanwhile, on the other side.

Jinling, the headquarters building of Xia Shu Aerospace Base, in the office of Academician Chang Huaxiang.

Looking through the meeting reports passed back from the Yuehuatai Outpost Scientific Research Station, Xu Chuan had a look of interest in his eyes.

"evolution."

"This is an interesting point of view."

On the side, his eyes fell on the key notes drawn by Professor Ke Jianhua. Academician Chang Huaxiang frowned and said, "Whether these Martian microorganisms can allow humans to evolve or not, we have to solve this problem first before talking about this."

Xu Chuan smiled and said: "Don't worry, Mr. Chang, I can't possibly risk the lives of four astronauts to do such a thing."

He knew what Academician Chang Huaxiang was worried about. He was simply afraid that he would become interested in things like evolution and conduct experiments on the lives of astronauts to test what impact these Martian microorganisms would eventually have on humans.

But this kind of thing is impossible to happen to him.

Even if he is interested in all the 'evolution' of these Martian microorganisms, he must first clean up the infections on the four astronauts before conducting relevant experiments.

Chang Huaxiang nodded, frowned and said: "In addition to solving the infection of astronauts by these Martian microorganisms, I have another worry."

"What?"

Xu Chuan looked over and asked, only to see Academician Chang Huaxiang frowning and saying with worry on his face: "I'm worried whether the transformation of the human body by these Martian microorganisms is reversible."

"If it is irreversible and the modified parts cannot be restored to the normal tissue structure of the human body, then are they still considered human?"

"In addition, will this modification penetrate into the genes and be passed on to the next generation?"

Hearing this question, Xu Chuan also fell into deep thought.

The biological definition of human beings is mainly based on the research results of multiple disciplines such as biology, genetics and evolution.

If it is from the fields of philosophy, sociology, psychology, etc., as long as the four astronauts still think of themselves as human beings, then they belong to human beings.

But what about basic sciences such as biology and genetics?

Human beings belong to the animal kingdom, chordates, mammals, primates, hominidae, and genus Homo.

If it is more strict, it belongs to the species of primates, hominidae, and genus Homo with 23 pairs of chromosomes.

Although there are many races in the world today, such as yellow, white, and black people, from a genetic point of view, there is not much difference between races of different skin colors.

But can organisms infected and transformed by Martian microorganisms still be classified into this concept?

It has to be said that this is indeed a headache.

After thinking for a while, Xu Chuan came back to his senses and said, "Let the higher-ups consider this issue. We don't need to solve this problem, but try our best to cure them."

After a slight pause, he flipped through the physical examination data of the four astronauts sent back by the Hanhai space shuttle, and then said, "Those foreign medical experts are not necessarily reliable. In the end, we will most likely have to rely on ourselves."

"From the physical examination data of the four astronauts, Zhai Zhigang and Tang Hongbo have not shown any mutations after being infected by Mars."

"Perhaps we can study their physical condition first to see if they have the corresponding biological antibodies or immune behaviors?"

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