Science Fiction | Lagrange Lens (2)

This issue of science fiction is here~

What I push for you today is:

Lagrange Lens (2)

03

Carefully observing each link of steelmaking, microbiology experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences found a large number of anaerobic bacteria in the No. 3 blast furnace and No. 4 blast furnace. They thrive in 1200 degrees of molten iron in a converter, and when the temperature falls below 800 degrees Celsius, they lose their activity and no longer reproduce.

This is a newly discovered, extremely thermophilic anaerobic bacterium with a rod-shaped body with a diameter of 0.5 microns and a body length of 4 microns. It is covered with hundreds of slender flagella and has strong athletic ability. Since they were found in Shougang Park, they were named "Shougang Fungus". My dad listened to Zhile, and the name was good!

According to the model established by experts, the Shougang fungus propagated from the converter is partly dormant underground, and partly "colonized" to the surrounding areas, such as the cooling tower, Xiuchi, Jiulongtou, and Big Air...... Traces can be found almost all over the park.

What puzzles experts is that after the Shougang fungus that went out to colonize attached to the surface of a certain building, it eventually ran out of energy and died after a period of dormancy. How can the dead Shougang bacterium accomplish the feat of "replication"?

In the living Shougang bacteria, experts have conducted countless experiments, but none of them have shown the ability to replicate. Experts are equally clueless about the workings of this miraculous phenomenon.

"Then simulate, draw a scoop according to the gourd!"

My dad's words provided the idea. As with restoring steel to find bacteria, the experts of the project team decided to simulate a blasting scenario to see how the replication would occur.

Beijing is rarely cool, the cloudy sky is blowing a small wind, and everyone stands in front of the erected No. 5 blast furnace, and their hearts are in their throats. Located on the south bank of Xiuchi, the No. 5 blast furnace is exactly the same size as the No. 4 blast furnace and was built for experimentation.

After testing, the surface of the No. 5 blast furnace has been covered with a layer of dormant Shougang bacteria, and its distribution density and biological activity are consistent with the Shougang bacteria on the surface of the two cooling towers. It stands to reason that the physical conditions for replication are already in place.

With a wave of his hand, the detonation program was activated, and under the attention of everyone, the 84-meter-high No. 5 blast furnace instantly collapsed and turned to the ground.

In the smoke from the blasting, no new blast furnaces appeared. The experiment failed.

In the face of unknown creatures and mysterious natural phenomena, without any theory and data support, experiments can only be exhaustive. The project team has successively built large and small cast steel chimneys, masonry consoles, hot-dip galvanized gantry, concrete cooling towers and other buildings of various materials, and tried in various time periods and under various experimental parameters, but all failed without exception.

The gloomy mood is like the rain in Beijing for several days, which cannot be dispelled in the hearts of everyone.

"The buildings are all built later, and the cooling towers that produced the replicas are more than 70 years old. I suggest blasting an old cooling tower as a counterpoint. An old expert said.

"No way!" My dad was vehemently against it.

"Old man, it's all for experiments. If successful, the bacterium's replication function will certainly be usable. He explained.

"Blast, unless you up first!" My dad dropped a sentence and slammed the door in anger.

Of course, in the end, the project team accepted the suggestion in a compromise manner. Within two weeks, if the existing experiments were still unsuccessful, a third cooling tower would have to be sacrificed – the entire Shougang Park would have been blasted down to make way for the reservoir.

I know my father, he has a big temper and has a seizure, and it's not easy to say anything with that stubbornness, but after thinking about it, he feels that others have a reason and doesn't squeak. He and He Lai can talk together, He Lai will drink with him if he has nothing to do, and the red star is the second pot, and he has to take the enamel tea jar.

In the past few days, he and He Lai have been running to the reference room as soon as they have free time, soaking in stacks of experimental materials and looking back and forth. This posture is as if it is going to be admitted to the university for the elderly. I don't care, as long as the old man doesn't make trouble and doesn't look at anything, he can do whatever he wants!

Three days before the third cooling tower was blasted, the old man and He Lai ran out of the data room with materials in their hands. It's like getting an admission letter.

"It's sunshine!"

How to explain to the project team.

Due to the outdoor experiment, the project team had not taken sunlight into account as a parameter before. Beijing had a month of rainy days due to extremely strong convective weather, and the day the two cooling towers were replicated was a sweltering sunny day.

He Lai and my father carefully reviewed the weather and experimental data, and found that after several experiments, varying numbers of Shougang bacteria were found near the blasted buildings. The more cloudy the weather, the lower the number of Shougang bacteria.

"Let's try again, let's pick a sunny day!" He Lai said excitedly.

Strange to say, two days later, the sun hung high in the morning, shining brightly in Shougang Park.

Participating in the experiment was a concrete silo with a circular silo erected like a rocket capsule waiting to be launched. He wiped the beads of sweat from his face, nodded to everyone, and motioned for the blasting procedure to start.

With a crisp popping sound, the main body of the silo tilted and burst, and then turned into pieces of debris and fell to the ground.

The sun shone directly on the rising smoke and dust, twinkling and twinking.

The eyes widened.

In the dazzling smoke, a silo with blue stripes on a white background emitted a white light and broke through the ground.

04

With the success of the experiment, the mystery of Shougang's replication ability was officially revealed.

It turns out that Shougang fungus, which lives in an extremely hot environment, has a special and unstable breeding environment. In order to ensure the reproduction of species, the microbiota gradually evolved into three types of roles.

The first type is the expeditionary fungus that expands the territory and looks for the next habitable environment. They have strong phototaxis and can swim long distances with the help of dense flagella. Shougang bacteria are rich in serine protease, which has a super memory function, and even if the bacteria die, they can still store information completely. When the expeditionary bacteria find a suitable living environment, they will release this information and tell it to their companions.

The recipients of this kind of information are the second type of bacteria, that is, messenger bacteria. Even when the messenger bacteria are dormant, they can receive information from the expeditionary bacteria and accurately identify the location of the expeditionary bacteria, the surrounding environment, and so on. In addition to this pattern, when the expeditionary protease that goes out is destroyed en masse for a short period of time, the messenger bacteria will also receive an alert that the distant partner is in danger.

These two types of information are passed on to the third type of bacteria, that is, the replicators that give the entire Shougang family the ability to replicate. The replicant bacteria has a strong ability to absorb and release energy, and it collects heat energy from extremely hot environments and stores it in the body. When the deciphered information is received and the colony decides to act, the replicator releases heat energy and allows itself to move to the outside world. Absorbing sunlight and converting it into energy again, this energy is huge, allowing them to extract the raw materials from the site according to the drawings left in the expeditionary bacteria protease, and compile the living environment before the expeditionary bacteria. Leave a "property" for future generations.

In other words, after the Shougang Park was shut down, the expeditionary bacteria that were propagated from the converter quickly swam into the surrounding buildings, and about 50 trillion expeditionary bacteria climbed and attached to the cooling tower. They reside here, and most of them die naturally after many years. When the blast occurs, the protease collective is destroyed, and the messenger bacteria dormant underground receive the information that the compatriots who recognize the expedition are in danger on the way to open up a new home, so 1,000 trillion awakened replicants release energy out of the hole in batches.

As soon as they came out, they were given plenty of sunlight, and the tremendous energy caused them to fly almost at the speed of light to the location of the original cooling tower, and at the same time, combined with the concrete that had been blown into powder on the ground, they synthesized a cooling tower at a speed imperceptible to humans according to the original location of the expeditionary bacteria. Of course, it is not possible to combine all the materials of the original cooling tower, so the density is low.

The replicant bacteria involved in the synthesis of the cooling tower do not survive for long, but they build the living environment of the expeditionary bacteria in flesh and blood, ensuring that the branch is not destroyed and continuing the transmission of protease information.

In this tragic way, the Shougang family allows the race to continue to leave footprints in the simulated environment, realize migration and pave the way for finding a new home. In the experiment of the project team on a rainy day, the first batch of replicants did not get energy through sunlight after going out, so they were stranded on the way, and the subsequent replicants did not continue to come out.

"What a great creature it is!" How to sigh.

"It's worth drinking it for half a pound to celebrate." My dad said.

The old man's words are right, the discovery of this magical creature is indeed worth celebrating. As an expert in materials science, I was inspired to build many lightweight and light-shading buildings through the replication ability of Shougang bacteria. They have a really strong ability to absorb light, and each replica building can be used as a natural air conditioner.

Shougang bacteria are more efficient and convenient than reservoirs, and the reservoir renovation plan was terminated, and Shougang Park restarted the steelmaking industry for large-scale production of Shougang bacteria.

My father is even more energetic, waving folding fans all day long, directing various workshops to engage in production.

"Add oxygen, heat up, heat up!" The old man pulled his throat, "That thing is most likely to give birth to cubs in a high temperature of 1200 degrees, and it should be higher!" ”

In the past, steelmaking was used for national construction, and now steelmaking is used for national and even global cooling undertakings, and Shougang bacteria are exported to foreign countries. The Chinese Academy of Sciences has made public the "cultivation" program of Shougang bacteria, so that all countries can enjoy their miraculous effects and benefit all mankind. It's just that their breeding environment is harsh, and the general countries and regions do not have large-scale steelmaking capacity, so they can only import finished Shougang mushrooms.

Experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences continued to study the characteristics of Shougang bacteria, and found that they can not only survive in a high temperature environment of 1200 degrees, but even in an absolutely low temperature environment of minus 270 degrees.

"What? Can it also be done at 3K temperatures? "I can't believe it.

"Yes, the experiment confirmed. They can handle both extreme temperatures. The expert affirmed.

My brain went blank for a moment, and then a stirring.

"Saved! The earth is saved! ”

I screamed and ran out of the lab. My dad said woo-woo, like he had received an admission letter.

Author: Zhang Jiafeng

Member of the "Science Fiction Apple Core" Writing Salon of Shanghai Association for Science and Technology

He is a member of Shanghai Pudong New Area Science Fiction Association

Editor-in-charge: Dong Xiaoxian