Seeing this scene, Chen Chen's eyes flashed with solemnity. In the movie, David just took a small drop and put it into the drink, and then infected an adult, turning him into a humanoid monster within ten hours. .
It can be seen from this that black water is definitely not a bacteria or virus, but a very stable polymer compound, otherwise it would not be able to easily resist the damaging effects of alcohol.
At this time, the black knight imitated David's operation in the movie and directly broke off the tip of the popsicle, then inserted a syringe from the side and absorbed a very small amount of black water liquid from the popsicle.
Among these black water liquids, some of the Black Knights were directly put into the microscope for analysis and observation, while others were injected into the bodies of white mice that had been prepared nearby.
Soon, Chen Chen saw that the mice injected with black water began to develop fever and convulsions.
Soon, the white mouse began to lose all its hair, and the pink skin under the hair was exposed to the air. But at this moment, the other white mice seemed to notice the abnormality, and they all gathered around the sick white mouse. beside.
However, this heartwarming scene was immediately reversed. The sick white mouse suddenly jumped up, pounced on one of the white mice, and started to bite it!
For a moment, the little white mouse was bitten until it was bleeding profusely!
"After being infected with black water, they will become irrational and extremely aggressive."
Chen Chen observed silently. Soon, the sick white mouse easily killed other white mice in the same cage. He continued to record, "After being infected with black water, the host's own strength will suddenly increase greatly, and it can easily kill the body." Similar to the same kind, consistent with the performance in the movie... "
After recording all these changes, Chen Chen only saw that the body of the white mouse in the cage began to change from red to gray. At the same time, it began to eat the flesh and blood of its kind, as if to accumulate energy for the next mutation.
Soon, the body of this little white mouse gradually grew a layer of cuticle and began to turn black. At the same time, under the black, there was dark red flesh.
At the end, a layer of thin and dense spikes like steel needles emerged from its body, replacing the original white hair. What's even weirder is that these spikes are still going in and out, looking extremely Weird…
"This is already a new species."
Chen Chen was shocked in his heart. He said hello to a black knight. The black knight immediately stepped forward, put on thick protective gloves, put the needle into the cage, and gently held the mutated baby. of a white mouse and began to draw blood samples from it.
After being caught, the mouse began to struggle violently and at the same time let out a very weird scream.
This kind of sound is beyond the range of sounds that a white mouse can make. It is shrill and ferocious. It is obvious that this white mouse has undergone essential changes in both its genes and body structure.
It's just that although this little white mouse has mutated extremely horribly, the size difference is there after all. No matter how hard it struggles, it can't break free from the black knight's grasp.
However, before the results of the mutated mouse's blood could be analyzed, Heishui analyzed it first.
When the composition of the black water was analyzed, Chen Chen was shocked.
"Are you sure you're not mistaken?"
Looking at the test report in his hand, Chen Chen showed a very strange expression, "You mean, this black water is a protein composed of more than 20 kinds of amino acids?"
"Yes, it is a protein molecule that can infect a variety of carbon-based life forms."
Little
"In other words, this is something like a prion?"
Chen Chen took a breath of air, "What about its infection method? Is it the same as prions?"
"Yes, based on blood tests on mice, the answer has been roughly obtained."
Little
After hearing this sentence, Chen Chen completely understood.
The so-called prions are not actually viruses, because in international textbooks, viruses can be classified into the ranks of living things, but prions alone are not considered living things, but are a kind of self-replicating and capable of being made up of only proteins. infectious agents.
However, prions are filterable, infectious, and pathogenic just like conventional viruses. However, they are much smaller than the smallest known conventional viruses. The virus particle structure cannot be observed under an electron microscope and they do not exhibit immunity. effect.
Chen Chen continued to look down and suddenly understood why black water was a prion.
Because after the prion protein of black water enters the host body, the normal PRP protein of the human body will be easily assimilated by the prion protein of black water, changing the normal configuration of the protein into the molecular structure of black water, and it will increase geometrically and expand rapidly.
But if that’s all, Blackwater is at best a new type of prion that is fast and highly infectious. But what’s even more surprising is that Blackwater’s prion protein not only has the ability to assimilate proteins in the host body , and the ability to disassemble nucleic acids in the host body!
When the prion protein of black water encounters the host's nucleic acid chain, it seems to trigger a certain program, starting to disassemble the host's DNA nucleic acid chain and reorganize it into a new form.
After the nucleic acid chain is reorganized, Blackwater's prion protein will also wrap the new nucleic acid chain to form a new viral structure.
At this point, Blackwater's prions have successfully evolved into a complete virus by plundering the DNA in living organisms, and this virus will work with Blackwater to transform the host's body a second time.
As a result, the scene that the mouse's body showed just now completely happened...
After reading the report in his hand, Chen Chen looked even weirder, "No wonder it can be ingested by the USB flash drive. I didn't expect that black water is a substance similar to prions. But in this report, in my opinion, the prion protein of black water is more Like an artificial protein robot..."
"I also have this feeling."
Little
"After all, it is the supreme creation of the engineer civilization."
Chen Chen nodded and said with emotion, "But now that I'm here, I finally understand the preciousness of Black Water. Compared with Black Water, the T virus is like a low-quality toy. Most of the creatures infected by the T virus are unstable. Disadvantages, such as zombies, only products infected from the fertilized egg stage can become healthy mutated organisms.”
"But black water is different. It can be used directly on adult life. Any living thing can directly mutate into a new species after contacting black water. What's even more valuable is that this new species has the ability to reproduce. It can completely form a new population independently, unlike the T virus which can only undergo single mutation and cannot continue."
"Doesn't that mean that black water can accelerate the evolution of life?"
Xiao X asked.
"No, there is still a gap with evolution."
However, Chen Chen paused and shook his head, "What is evolution? Only evolution that continuously adapts to the environment can be called evolution, but Black Water is not like that at all. From the fate of that little white mouse, we can understand that this kind of Black Water The changes caused by water should be called uncontrollable mutations."
"And the direction of this mutation is uncertain. It may go in a good direction or in a bad direction. It is even possible for humans to lose the characteristics and thoughts of higher organisms after infection, just like in the movie..."
"Ah, if black water is so dangerous, why do you still study black water?" Xiao X was suddenly confused.
"Although black water is dangerous, everything has two sides."
Chen Chen smiled, "After all, it is a biological weapon that is dozens or even hundreds of times more powerful than the T virus. It is definitely very useful. Besides... the engineers can live for more than 300,000 years, while humans are engineers and black men. The combination of water, so is it possible that we can find out the secret of engineers’ longevity from black water?”