Die on Mars - Chapter 210

c210 Day 326 (1) Mutation

Five days after the space station accident.

There are still six days until Tianzhou 37 arrives.

Lao Mao completed the routine work of moving battery panels. When he entered the door, he found Tang Yue sleeping unconscious on the table, drooling all over the keyboard.

“Wake up, Tang Yue, wake up.” The old cat put the thing in his hand on the table, then poked him, “It’s almost dripping on the ground.”

Tang Yue opened his eyes, raised his head, and looked around vaguely, with red AWSD printed on half of his face.

“So sleepy?” The old cat held the dropper in his hand and stood in front of the shelf to take care of the tomatoes. He turned the planting boxes one by one so that the plants could be illuminated evenly, “Little Eight, Little Ten, Little Eleven… It’s growing well and Grandpa is very happy.”

“I played Landlord too late last night.” Tang Yue yawned and rubbed his sore neck, “Where’s Ophiopogon japonicus?”

Last night, Tang Yue’s old cat and Maidong played cards until 1:30 in the morning. Tang Yue had never stayed up all night like this since graduating from college. They fought fiercely all night. He lost dozens of games in a row, and Maidong also lost dozens of games in a row. In the end, the two People lose everything, but old cats make a lot of money.

“I’m here,” the girl replied. She also yawned, “I’m so sleepy too… sleepy, cold and hungry.”

There are only two pieces of compressed biscuits left. Ophiopogon japonicus consumes dry food at a rate of one piece a day, trying to maintain her strength. Her daily life now is to eat, sleep, sleep, sleep, eat, sleep, sleep, sleep, old cat He said that she was like a sleeping beauty sleeping in a coffin, but no prince came to kiss her to wake her up. Tang Yue said that she was like a fat hamster curled up in a cage.

“What is this?” Tang Yue noticed that what the old cat brought back was a plastic box with a plexiglass petri dish as big as a palm in it.

Tang Yue took the petri dish out of the box, held it in his hand and looked at it curiously. There was a layer of transparent gelatinous matrix at the bottom of the petri dish, like colorless jelly. The jelly was covered with colorful irregular spots, the largest of which was It is as big as an adult’s thumb, occupying one side, and is in the shape of a regular oval. The smaller ones are like scattered rice grains, and some are even covered with fine hairs.

“Moldy jelly?”

“The colony I cultivated.” The old cat turned around and glanced, “I have to leave some seeds of life to this world, right?”

“What do you mean?” Tang Yue asked, “These bacteria are the seeds of life? Do you want to sow them out and let them evolve into higher life forms?”

“How is this impossible?” The old cat irrigated the tomatoes carefully. “Don’t forget that you were once such a simple life. As long as you give them enough time, one day they will also create miracles.”

“But it took us three billion years.”

“The universe will give them three billion years.”

“Where do these bacteria come from?” Tang Yue asked.

The old cat turned around and pointed at Tang Yue with his chin, meaning, “Where is the second source of pollution on Mars besides you?”

“I use compressed biscuits and compost extract as nutrients, agar as the culture medium, and the bacteria basically come from you. The colonies here include Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus, Veillonella, and E. coli.” The old cat came over, took the petri dish, and looked at the light outside the window. “They are distributed in your skin, respiratory tract, and intestines.”

“Intestine?” Tang Yue was startled and subconsciously covered his butt.

“What did you do to me while I was sleeping?”

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“After staying on Mars for a long time, even bacteria find them cute.” Tang Yue supported his head and slowly rotated the petri dish with his other hand, “How many different kinds of bacteria are there in here?”

“There are as many different kinds of bacteria as there are different colonies.” The old cat answered, “Those light yellow or white, round small colonies are Staphylococcus aureus, and those opaque gray-green round colonies are Veillonella. …I put them outdoors to test their tolerance to the Martian environment, and the results showed that most of the bacteria died, and only a small number of anaerobic bacteria persisted.”

Planting bacterial colonies in the earth’s environment is a rather complicated task and requires strict disinfection to prevent contamination, but it is much simpler to do this on Mars. As long as the old cat leaves Kunlun Station and stays away from Tang Yue’s living area, then it can Avoiding almost all interference, the cleanliness of any place on Mars is far better than the ultra-clean bench for ultraviolet disinfection in the laboratory on Earth.

Tang Yue stared at the colonies in the petri dish. The growth of these microorganisms was actually not optimistic. Most of the colonies were on the verge of extinction. It may be that the old cat’s homemade culture medium was not nutritious, or it may be that the Martian environment was too harsh, but they Still trying its best to expand, trying to occupy every square centimeter of the culture medium.

“If they can really spread out, then the ecosystem that will eventually be formed will definitely be completely different from the one on Earth.” Tang Yue said, “Only anaerobic bacteria can survive here, and then all living things in the future may not need oxygen. , that will be a completely new form of life.”

The external form of life is fundamentally determined by the most basic way of utilizing energy. Most life on earth relies on respiration to provide energy. Respiration is an oxidation reaction that decomposes glucose into pyruvate and then converts it into adenosine triphosphate. This energy transfer chain It exists in almost all living things, so there is a respiratory system and a circulatory system.

“Then you are the God of Creation.” The old cat said, “This is a grand myth like the creation of the world by Pangu and the creation of mankind by Nuwa… But who would have thought that the so-called myth is just an ordinary afternoon, a man I scraped a little bit of saliva from my own mouth and spread it on the petri dish.”

“No matter how significant the historical turning point is, it is just an ordinary day.” Tang Yue said, “After all, there is no BGM in life.”

He raised his head and felt the giant wheel of history rumble over his head.

“This sounds legendary, but in fact it is impossible.” Old Mao said, “Do you really think that the colonies in this petri dish will become the source of the next civilization? Even if these bacteria do not rely on oxygen, they are still A product that evolved in the earth’s environment. Mars lacks enough organic matter and the heterotrophic flora in the human body cannot survive… What is needed to survive in this hellish place is aerobic bacteria, such as sulfur bacteria or certain archaea. .”

Tang Yue frowned.

“Then you just said this is the seed of life?”

“It’s just nonsense.” The old cat said, “I have never thought about using bacteria to cultivate the next civilization. My lifespan is not that long. This is just a small experiment I did before to test the effects of Martian environmental radiation on human flora. Impact.”

It came over, picked up the petri dish on the table, squinted one eye, and pointed out the colonies on the substrate to Tang Yue one by one, “Here… look, these staphylococci are almost dead. They are declining. Yesterday, their distribution area was twice as large as this. Half of them died in 24 hours. Streptococcus is also dying. The color is unhealthy. There is also Malassezia. The colonies are no longer visible. Obviously It’s absolutely dead.”

“What about this one?” Tang Yue pointed at a black colony in the middle of the petri dish. It was not the largest colony among all the colonies, but it showed no signs of decline and was quite energetic. “This one is growing very well.”

The old cat stared at the oval patch for a long time, rubbed his chin, and frowned.

“Is this Candida? Or Mononas? No…no…”

The old cat shook his head slowly.

“Huh?” Tang Yue asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Mutation, it should be mutated.” The old cat finally judged, “This is a mutated strain.”

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(Author’s gossip: Yuewen has been interviewed by relevant departments and is conducting a self-examination. The situation is turbulent and the authors are all in danger.)