The Genome Paradox (1)
A Waksberg

 

He was at his desk, in the middle of the night, perspiring profusely, flipping rapidly though masses of papers, figures, charts- he was so close to finding what he believed to be the secret of life itself! But a part of the enigma was still missing. He had to discuss it quickly with the woman he loved, who he was confident could complete the missing link for him. He had to see her the next day.

He went to bed but could not sleep. His eyes were wide open, his mind racing in all directions, wondering how he had gotten to that state of frenzy. His mind flashed back to when it all began, on that fatidical evening a few months ago...

It was already seven o�clock and he, John Kilber, a well known bioengineering scientist, sat in the lounge of the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Montreal, deep in thought, a beer mug in one hand and in the other, a heavy briefcase that he was only too happy to dispose off on the table as he stretched his sore legs.

He had spent all day running from room to room to catch all the important conference papers that he hoped would answer the questions he was after. He had even gone to attend a number of post deadline papers that had dragged well past the end of the regular sessions. He was reviewing the notes that he had feverishly taken all day long but was disappointed that none of the papers would give him a clue to what he was after; and until he had the answer he was stuck and feared that his most important project would be canceled. One more day remained of the four- day conference, but his hopes were dwindling fast as he had already attended most of the promising papers. Reading the abstracts of the next day�s session, he realized that the subject matters were already a step further removed from his target. He could not take a chance however, just in case, and he groaned at the thought of another gruesome day of paper presentations.

The absence of the usual noise associated with a crowded lounge triggered his attention. He scanned the room quickly and observed that the lounge was almost empty, as most other scientists were already gone for a well deserved rest. Too bad! by being so absorbed in his thoughts, he must have missed his colleagues who had probably looked for him to join their social evening plans. He was therefore resigned to spending the evening alone in the hotel- No matter, he was in no mood to celebrate anyway!

It wouldn�t be the first or last time that he would be alone. Although he felt he was reasonably handsome, he was shy with the opposite sex and never managed to form a lasting relationship with women. Was it because of him? Of them? He did not know. At the age of 35, he had more or else given up on romance as something that happened to others or in the movies. He did not particularly enjoy going out with the boys. Besides, more and more of his colleagues and friends were by now married with children. He therefore, had gotten into the habit of passing his evenings alone. Fortunately, his work gave him immense satisfaction and was his major companion- in the day as well as at night. When he had a particularly hard day, he knew how to relax with a good escapist book where he could enjoy a vicarious relationship with a desirable girl that he could imagine to his fancy; or he could listen to relaxing classical music, Mozart being his favorite.

As he was organizing his timetable, half-heatedly, working through the maze of parallel sessions that was yet to be offered on the last day of the conference, his eyes were attracted by someone who was on the verge of entering the room, but had stopped short at the door. He lifted his head for a few seconds and as the person turned around and started to leave, he went back to his preoccupations. He heard the steps recede then return. He lifted his head once more and saw the person standing at the door again, now staring at him. He wasn�t sure that the stare was meant for him for he could only discern, at that distance, a blurred figure being terribly nearsighted. He never wore his glasses when reading or writing. At this point though, he became intrigued and curious quickly putting on his glasses. He was rewarded by realizing that the blurred figure was in fact that of a beautiful woman who was apparently still staring in his direction with an inquisitive look and a smile on her face. She wore a perfectly molded dark blue suit which, together with her shapely legs enhanced by high heels, made her look sophisticated as well as sexy. She looked too gorgeous to fit the stereo typical description of women attending his type of conferences. He had gotten used to the fact that, to his chagrin, few women attended these scientific gatherings; and those that did dressed in such an innocuous fashion that he would almost forget that they were of the opposite sex. If they had the potential to be nice looking it seems that they did all they could to hide it!

As the lady was still staring at him, he started to feel more and more uncomfortable. He turned his head around to make sure that no one else was standing behind him, but he was alone. He had to reconcile himself to the fact that those beautiful blue eyes were actually meant for him. Not quite knowing what to do, he managed to respond with a weak non committal smile. That seemed to be sufficient encouragement for her to move toward him as she said unequivocally, "I�m sure I know you but can�t quite place you. Please help me out before I start to feel like a complete fool staring at you like that."

Puzzled as ever and certain that he could not possibly know a girl that he could only dream about, he was now resigned to the fact that this was no doubt a case of mistaken identity that would be quickly cleared up and with it that mirage that he would love to cling to. He blushed as he stammered, "But I don�t believe I know you."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he kicked himself for not adding "But I wish I did."

This was however the story of his life. Finding the juste mot, but only after he had stopped talking. Fortunately for him, the beautiful creature did not take no for an answer.

"Didn�t you attend McGill University?" After he answered in the affirmative, she smiled triumphantly, exposing a perfect row of teeth.

"That�s what I thought! Don�t you remember? I was in your class in physics, while I was in pre-med."

He was getting redder by the minute, for he did not want to offend her by revealing that he still did not have a clue.

"Well you see those physics classes were pretty large...":

"O.K. John, I�ll help you out of your embarrassment. I�ll give you a better clue. We were lab partners and I was the girl who was pestering you when we were doing the experiments. You also helped me out patiently when we were writing our lab reports"

John opened his mouth with incredulity. She broke into a laugh. "Yes, I am Frances Brown, the one that you probably liked to hate because you thought I was wasting your time and should not be in science!"

Of course he remembered that frivolous girl who could not concentrate for one minute on their experiment. He also recalled that she did look sort of cute when she kept her mouth shut, but her crooked teeth were sort of repulsive. On the other hand here, in front of him, was a most beautiful girl with a radiant smile that was accentuating a beautiful mouth with perfect teeth. Here was a woman whose resemblance to that young lab partner was as night and day. Still not believing his own eyes, it took what seemed to him as an eternity to compose himself and to blurt out, "I�m really sorry but I wouldn�t have recognized you in a thousand years. Of course I remember that physics lab. It was simple then. All you had to do was guess what the lab demonstrator wanted and then work the lab results backward!"

"Well, maybe it was easy for you, but not so obvious to me. I depended on you to tell me what to write in my lab book!"

John went on fishing for words, "I don�t quite know how to say this but I can�t understand how my lab partner, who was cute needless to say, became..."

And he stopped, blushing not knowing how to formulate his obvious question".

Frances came to his rescue.

"Became the person you now see, which I hope means an improvement! Well I�ll take this hesitation as a compliment; but don�t mince your words. I know that I wasn�t much of a looker when I was your lab partner and it caused me great pain. What changed it all was a summer job the year before I graduated. I could not find a job in my field and finally ended up modeling for a large store. I was told I had a nice body but should not open my mouth when I smiled because of my teeth. You can be sure that this clinched it for me. I used most of the money I earned that summer to undergo a treatment to straighten my teeth out and other small defects. From your expression I dare to hope that you like the result!" she said breaking into a smile exhibiting those perfect white pearls.

"I love the result and you�re so elegant."

"Well that job also made me acquire a taste for nice clothes- what can I say!"

"Believe me, the end result is most enchanting! I am so happy that you have decided to talk to me. But tell me how did you recognize me after so many years. I�m sure I must also have changed quite a bit!"

"Well, you did change a little, you certainly look more dignified now. What gave you away was the way you sat concentrating over your papers. It reminded me of the many hours that you passed in the library. An earthquake would not have moved you away once you got involved in solving a problem."

"I don�t think I have changed much in this respect. I must confess that I probably got worse with the increase in responsibilities," he said while rising and pointing to a chair in front of him, adding, "Where are my manners? Won�t you please join me."

"With pleasure," she answered. After sitting down, she crossed her legs, revealing their perfect shape which was obviously appreciated by John.

She added. "By the way I am surprised to see you at this conference. I thought that you intended to be an engineer when we were studying."

"You�re right! In fact, I graduated as an electronic engineer. After working for a number of years as a communication engineer, I realized that although I was good at it, this was not satisfying enough for me. I left industry to go back to school where I did a qualifying year in biology. I wanted to combine my engineering background with life science which, to me, is more relevant and less dry than pure engineering. I then pursued post graduate studies and ended up with a Ph D in bioengineering. But I still haven�t answered your question of what I am doing here. Well I�m heading a consortium working on new forms of "life". As you can imagine, this is a complex field and I came here hoping to have some of my urgent questions answered. Unless I can solve a number of important problems still outstanding, I fear my project might be jeopardized and may be even canceled.

But listen to me, I�m only talking about me and my problems. It�s your turn to tell me your interest in the conference. As I remember, you were in pre-med when we were lab partners. You told me that this was the reason you took physics as a requirement, even though you kept stressing that you hated it!"

"I still hate physics by the way. I did not make as big a switch as you, however- Although I enjoyed my pre-med days, I quickly realized that working with the day-to-day reality of sick people was not my bag. I could not envisage taking the responsibility of making life or death decisions on a continuous basis. Being too emotional, I would not be able to sleep at night, always worrying whether my diagnosis was correct or the right drug was prescribed. I therefore moved towards research which was much more my cup of tea. I am interested in the field of microbiology where I study biological molecules rather than a whole person! I now work more specifically on the Genome Project which, I am sure, you have heard about. Like you, I came to this conference with the hope that it would help me in my research. I am not too impressed so far."

"You can�t imagine, Frances, how happy I am that you came here and most importantly that you recognized me. You�ve reminded me of those happy days at the University - tell me Frances, have you got plans for the evening? If you don�t, I would be delighted if you would join me for diner tonight. We can spend some time reminiscing about those carefree years of our youth that we didn�t appreciate enough! I was in a foul mood just before I saw you, but now my problems seemed to have become less important somehow".

"I would be thrilled to go to diner with you- I was supposed to meet one of my colleague here, but our wires must have crossed somehow and I was resigned to having a drink and a bite and then going to bed early. So you see, you�ve also made my day!".

And so the two renewed acquaintances and decided to celebrate this impromptu reunion by splurging in one of the well known French restaurant, Les Halles, on Crescent Street, a trendy street of Montreal. After reminiscing about the past while enjoying un lievre au civet for John and un canard � l�orange for Frances with a nice bottle of Chablis, the conversation went to more serious matters.

"My dear Frances, you said you work on the Genome Project. This sounds fascinating, could you tell me more about it?".

"Well it�s a huge international project and we have reached the point where we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. As you know, we are in the process of identifying one Human gene after another and in so doing, we are building up the atlas of genes that specifies the human species. We have managed to associate many of these genes with a set of instructions to synthesize a myriad of proteins that our body needs for its functioning. Also, deficiencies or mistakes in the code of some of these genes are associated with a large number of genes related to hereditary sicknesses.

There are, however, gaps in our body of knowledge which still have to be resolved before we can fully use our findings. In particular, I have been put in charge to solve a mysterious paradox. Although most of the gene sequences are now recognized as instruction sets to build proteins, to serve as a blueprint for the development of the being, or for controlling the function of the cell, we find some long DNA sequences that, at this point, defy identification as to their possible function. You can see, if you work in the field, that they look quite different from the others. Because of my success in helping in the Genome Project, it seems that I have been "volunteered" into working on those special anomalies and have been asked to theorize as to their possible function (if any). As you can see, I have been "rewarded" for my past successful achievements by being offered an impossible task which will, no doubt, push this research into oblivion, as so far, I see no logical explanation for these strings of DNA. I came to this conference hoping to be inspired, but so far, have found the papers mostly useless in solving my problem. In fact, I have to confess that the only bright side to this conference is having met you."

John was fascinated by Frances. He was drinking up each of her words, not only because of their interest, but also because those words were uttered by the most exquisite and kissable lips. He had difficulty concentrating because he was used to discussing his ideas with other scientists which, were almost invariably men. To do so with, what was obviously, a competent scientist of the opposite sex and so beautiful at the same time, was an experience difficult for him to absorb.

He suddenly realized that his mind was wandering and that Frances had stopped talking. His mind flipped back to the conversation and he said, "About your mission, you should certainly not be disappointed that it was given to you. On the contrary, you should be proud. If this difficult task was assigned to you it is because your colleagues think that you probably have the most insight into the Genome Project and have therefore the greatest potential to solve this riddle. You should be rather flattered.

Frances smiled, uplifted by those words. When she had been his partner in the physics lab she had always admired John and the way he talked. She realized that she still felt that way.

"My interest in your work is more than casual, as you will see after I describe in more detail what I am doing," John continued. "The consortium for which I work, which is made up of universities, NASA, the military and private enterprises, is interested in developing Microrobots - the type of machine that could do work for us in the microscopic scale."

"But men are already using microscopic organisms to work for them, like microbes to make wine or yeast to make bread. You�re not talking about these type of workers, are you?"

"Well yes and no," replied John. "No in the sense that I am talking of really intelligent robots that can be directed singly or in groups to accomplish a task under our command. They would be small enough that they could be inserted in the blood stream, for example, with the instruction to clean a clogged artery, or they could be used as intelligent soldiers to identify certain bacteria or cancer cells and destroy them - you see what I mean. On the other hand, the answer is yes from another point of view. I convinced the consortium that these microrobots should be "biological" in the sense that they could divide on command and thus reproduce themselves with very little effort on our part. One of the major advantage of doing so is that, if you have a task to be performed in an environment with which you�re unfamiliar, you cannot design your robot according to specs that cannot be defined. You therefore start with robots that have capabilities close to what you think is required, put them in the environment desired, and let them multiply in large numbers. We then use Mother Nature�s way of solving such dilemma, namely, through mutation and the selection of the fittest. Think how this would be useful in solving problems in outer space where it might be desirable to colonize a planet. The environment must be prepared before Man can step into that world. You can see the tremendous implications and why so much money would be available for such a project."

"This project sounds extremely interesting and I am most impressed with your own proposal to develop those "biological" microrobots. How far have you progressed and how come I haven�t heard about it?"

"As you may well imagine, so much is at stake here for the various agencies supporting the project that it is mostly secret although its existence is not. Obviously we don�t advertise it on the rooftops!".

"Is there anything specific then that you can tell me about your work then?".

"Oh yes! I can certainly describe what I am doing in broad terms without going into the details that would reveal the various secret technologies that are required to make such a project realizable.

I have already told you that, as I proposed, we want to copy Mother Nature to obtain our various robots by the selection process. The slave robots, to be useful, should be able to operate in environments inhospitable to mankind and other DNA-based creatures, for example where the temperature or radiation levels are too high. I therefore further proposed to the consortium that the construction of those microrobots be based on special long chains of molecules. These should withstand harsher environments than DNA based molecules can support. I was consequently put in charge of this part of the project. Without going into details (which I am not at liberty to discuss anyway), I am exploring a "life form" constructed around silicon based polymers. You know from your own experience how some of these products can "feel" organic-- Just think of a silicone seal and you will agree that it feels soft like skin. Yet it is strong and can withstand huge temperature differences without losing its elastic properties and other good characteristics. It was, as a matter of fact, developed for the harsh environment of space".

It was not necessary for him to elaborate. As a scientist she was well aware that silicon is very similar to carbon chemically speaking and that they both have a valence of four and can form molecules made up of long chains of atoms known as polymers. He went on, "My group is quite advanced in duplicating the basic elements of life in a synthetic cell based on silicon rather than carbon."

By this time they were both sipping a Grand Marnier.

"This is fascinating, I had no idea such advanced work was going on anywhere and that you would be the key man of that important project. But tell me, how is my work of interest to you-- surely you�re not thinking of building a silicon man!".

"Of course not, but we have a two-prong program: One is short term, to build useful micorobots as soon as possible; the other, is long term and is based on the evolutionary process which I have explained to you before. That is, we do the best possible target to start with and allow the creation of microrobots, by reproduction and survival of the fittest, for different tasks and environments.

 

 

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Copyright © 2004 A Waksberg
Published on the World Wide Web by "www.storymania.com"