Chapter 593 The unknown side of the laboratory
"But, bacteria, can you eat them?" Even Jingshu looked disgusted. Bugs are still collagen, after all, but what about bacteria? Are they nutritious? If Jingshu was right, all foods were collectively called carbohydrates. Without this combination, leaving aside the question of whether they tasted good or not, could the bacteria be digested? How could they satisfy hunger if they weren't carbohydrates?
So the question is, are bacteria considered carbohydrates?
Xie Zhuzhu pointed to the densely packed, spiral-shaped bacteria next door and said, "These are spirochetes, a type of true bacteria. Don't be fooled by their appearance; they actually have a very important function. They fix nitrogen, converting it into a form that can be used by organisms. Ordinary spirochetes are only 50 microns, but look at these little cuties in front of you. They've been magnified a lot."
Jingshu: “….”So what?
"Ahem, you might not understand all these technical questions, so I'll just tell you straight up: these bacteria are very useful. For example, we can categorize the bacteria in the lab into two main types. One type is for human food. Can you believe that a human only needs to eat a fingernail-sized amount of these bacteria to be full? Look, it's like this."
As he was talking, Xie Zhuzhu reached out and used a knife to cut off a little bit of it. It felt like cutting off an octopus tentacle. Then the tentacle began to resist violently, flapping. Then Xie Zhuzhu stuffed it into his mouth and swallowed it without chewing.
"Oh, I forgot to mention that it's best not to chew this bacteria after swallowing it, because the more you chew, the more the bacteria will divide, and the effect won't be very good."
Xie Zhuzhu patted herself, catching her breath, before continuing, "This type of bacteria can complete the carbon cycle. Once swallowed, the bacteria will be attacked by the body's bacterial flora. This process will synthesize other organic compounds, which will then be passed through the food chain and become part of humans and bacteria. A portion of the carbohydrates in the human body, serving as energy for metabolic processes, are oxidized and decomposed into carbon dioxide and water through respiration, releasing the stored energy to meet the body's need for carbohydrates."
Jingshu and Song Bin nodded, not quite understanding. Anyway, this bacterium should eventually be able to be converted into the energy needed by the human body, as long as people don't starve to death after eating it.
"Look at the bacteria that have been cut off here. They will reproduce and fill up the bacterial group. In short, they will replenish as much as they are used, and they may even grow more with stimulation. If we can achieve an inexhaustible supply of energy, the problem of energy that has troubled humans will be solved." Xie Zhuzhu's face was full of pride. This laboratory was the result of four years of research by their team. Although he said it easily, it was unknown how many experiments and calculations he had done during that period.
"By the way, would you like to try some? The taste is a bit strong, and the texture is average. Plus, it'll churn violently in your stomach after you eat it. It feels just like popping candy, very novel and exciting."
"Only a fool would want to eat it." Song Bin's face turned pale and he shook his head vigorously.
Jingshu was a little eager to make a move. As a big boss in the last ten years of the apocalypse, he had even eaten corpse worms in order to survive. What kind of suffering had he not endured?
But seeing the dirty, inky excrement and the pungent stench, Jingshu gave up the idea again: "Maybe it would be good to make sashimi later. By the way, what does this spirochete feed on?"
Just like raising chickens and ducks, even if you feed them insects, you still need to feed them food, right? What about the energy consumption involved?
Xie Zhuzhu pointed to another glass cover and said, "Look, this is the other type of bacteria I was talking about. It will be the food for various gigantic animals and bacteria in the future. It is also one of the current agents for species gigantism. We have been studying how to make food grow giant without losing energy, and this type of bacteria is one of the inducements. Combined with some special drugs, it can replicate crazily, and then it can stimulate the body of animals, begin to frantically destroy and change DNA and chromosomes, and thus cause these organisms to mutate at different levels..."
Jingshu frowned and continued to listen to the confusing words.
"To put it bluntly, it is actually about modifying genes to make them drastically change, but we cannot do perfect targeted modification, so we can directly and violently make them
These creatures are directly deformed and will grow into whatever shape they want, just like the chickens you see. In fact, they are just chicks. Later we will catalyze them and try to make them grow to the size of elephants. "
"That's why they are said to be a bunch of lunatics." Song Bin's lips moved, but he didn't say that the laboratory had originally enlarged the maggots several times in order to cultivate the giant maggots as feed and food.
Just imagine how disgusting it would be to have a maggot as big as a human crawling in front of you. Of course, one cut with a knife would leave it full of juice.
Ideals are beautiful, but reality is blunt. Xie Zhuzhu's experiments always encounter various problems, but just like life, he is either on the way to discovering problems or on the way to solving them.
"Why don't you try to use fish to conduct gigantic experiments?" Jingshu was a little curious. In her previous life, the first gigantic food that came out was obviously fish.
Xie Zhuzhu shook her head. "The DNA and chromosomes of aquatic organisms are indeed simpler, but their conversion rate is too low, and their deformity rate is also low. The simpler they are, the more indestructible they are, so the cost will be much higher, and they won't achieve the expected results. The failure rate is much higher than other species."
"Is there a twist in this?" Jing Shu pondered for a moment and decided to remind him. After all, she was a prophet. "I think you can study fish again. Maybe the difficulties are only temporary. It's not bad to try a different approach when you encounter a bottleneck."
"Okay, once we get past this theory, we'll study fish."
It is not known whether it is true or just for show, but Jingshu is not in a hurry. She has just joined this big project. She only has some information from the prophet and knows the development of history, which is of no use at the moment. She knows nothing about the detailed research content, but she can learn about it slowly in the future.
There are 11 floors of laboratories. When they reached the 5th floor, Jingshu said she didn't want to go down any further.
Because the deeper you go, the darker it gets, as if the first and second layers still represent hope and light, but it gets darker as you go down.
Studying the human body, how to make the best use of corpses, and even using human nutrients to cultivate new species, etc. Despite having signed the agreement, Jingshu still saw the least known side of the apocalypse today.
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