Chapter 16

F R E E  on  the  S E A

ARKON CH-16  Arkon One, ProtoClones

Arkon One, 12,027 Wk-42, Mon, 1915hr

We're having this special Monday team meeting,"  said Stakka, "So we can lay down some guidelines for our research projects." "And who's going to choose to do which task," said Renka.

1. Who's gonna work on bovine digestive systems? Compare them to a Colobine monkey, the only ruminant primate.

2. Who's gonna work on which virus targets what organ?

3. Who's gonna work on the macaque monkey clone?

4. Who's gonna work on the gibbon ape clone?

5. Who's gonna work on the lesula clone?

6. Who's gonna work on the womb chamber and growth acceleration?

Keep a Lab Notebook, bound, not spiral or looseleaf. Do not tear out any pages. Record your experiments and data. Sign and date each page because it can be used as a legal document in contested patents.

At our regular Friday meeting you can tell me who decided to take up which project," said Stakka.

Another thing we learned from reading dr. Liu's notes," said Renka, "Is the researchers spent three years perfecting the technique to enucleate the egg and inject the clone nucleus back in very quickly. The faster this process is done the better chance for success."

"Since I had no background in biology," said Stakka, "I found this non-technical definition of a genome very useful."

A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. For example, the human genome is analogous to the instructions stored in a cookbook. Just as a cookbook gives the instructions needed to make a range of meals including a holiday feast or a summer picnic, the human genome contains all the instructions needed to make the full range of human cell types including muscle cells or neurons.

1. The book (genome) would contain 23 chapters (chromosomes);

2. Each chapter contains 48 to 250 million letters (A,C,G,T) without spaces;

3. Hence, the book contains over 3.2 billion letters total;

4. The book contains approximately 20,000 different recipes (genes), which together make up less than 2% of the letters in the book.

5. The book fits into a cell nucleus the size of a pinpoint;

6. In meiosis, the genetic material of gametes is divided in half to create egg and sperm cells, which have only one copy of the book.

Arkon One, 12,027 Wk-42, Tue, 2025hr

"I saw an ad for Ink-N-Blink tattoo," said Robin, "Let's call Ed and Mary and do it tonight." " Okay," said Karl, "Let's go."

They picked up Ed and Mary on the way out and headed for the Ink-N-Blink shop. When they got there the staff showed them catalogs of facial tattoos and let them use a computer design program to customize and print out their selection. They decided in addition to the small cheekbone triangle to have the girls tattoos be curvy and the boys mostly straight line geometric constructs.

When they got back they used their commo pod and sent pictures to the rest of the team.

Arkon One, 12,027 Wk-42, Wed, 2015hr

Zak, Sophie, Dan, and Katie get their fix at Ink-N-Blink. On the way back Katie says, "I'm going jogging tomorrow Sophie, wanna go with me?" "Yeah, if its indoors," she replied, "I haven't had my melano-tan shot yet, and I burn easy." "That sounds like a catalog genetic tweak," said Zak, "Mabe a bonus with fingernail strength enhancement." "Sign me up," said Dan, "My nails are always chipping."

Arkon One, 12,027 Wk-42, Thr, 1945hr

Stakka, Renka, Alan, and Jane get their fix at Ink-N-Blink.

Arkon One, 12,027 Wk-42, Fri, 1905hr

At their regular Friday meeting everyone explained a little about their project.

"With our non-technical background," said Renka, "We chose to study which virus targets what organ." "We will make an easily searchable database," said Stakka, "Where you can pick an organ first and find out which viruses are available to invade it."

"We chose ruminant digestive systems," said Karl. "We will also investigate if a more efficient one could be substituted," said Robin.

"We are are working on the macaque clone," said Sophie. "We are going to  try earlier fetal cells than fibroblasts," said Zak.

"We are are working on the gibbon clone," said Alan. "We will try some moderate growth acceleration techniques as well," said Jane.

"We are working on the lesula clone," said Katie. "We will also try some moderate growth deceleration techniques," said Dan.

"We chose the ectogenisis chamber," said Ed. "And growth acceleration by extending natural cycles," said Mary.

"Before you get too deep into your projects," said Stakka, "I recommend reading an online article called 'Design of Experiments'. "It could show when you need a small pre-experiment first," said Renka.

     . . . Eight  Weeks  Later . . .

Arkon One, 12,027 Wk-50, Fri, 1915hr

At their regular Friday meeting everyone gave a status update on 

their project.

"We have finished the virus database," said Stakka, "And added further divisions to choose from. You can now select whether the virus is  encapsulated or not, or whether it's an RNA or DNA virus." "Also we added the organs for common farm animals," said Renka." "A human gene map and database is also available," said Stakka, "But we see no improvements are needed."

"We looked up feed conversion ratios for different farm animals," said Karl, "And beef cattle are rated 6 to 8 and pigs are rated 3.5 to 3.7 and digest faster." "So what we were thinking," said Robin, "Is convert pig muscle to look and taste like beef muscle."

"We took fetal cells earlier than the fibroblasts," said Sophie, "And had a much higher success rate. The four embryos we have are due in 15 weeks, and we will use for an acceleration experiment," said Zak, "Two of them we will cause a small increase in growth hormone for their early childhood development, and the other two will be the control group. Somatocrinin turns on growth hormone and somatostatin inhibits it."

"What we discovered about gibbons largely comes from a paper published in Nature in 2014 titled, 'Gibbon genome and the fast karyotype evolution of small apes', said Allan, "With this introduction, 'Gibbons are small (50 cm, 5 kg) arboreal apes that display an accelerated rate of evolutionary chromosomal rearrangement and occupy a key node in the primate phylogeny between Old World monkeys and great apes'." "We do have four embryos, due in 22 weeks," said Jamie, "And we will try early childhood growth accceleration on two of them." "Gibbons sexually mature 6 in years, and humans in 12 years," said Allan, "Which suggest human 4 year old would equal a gibbon 2 year old."

"The Lesula monkey, at 50 cm, 5 kg, is similar to the macaque," said Katie, "It lives between two rivers in the Congo and was only discovered by outsiders in 2010." "Its face, nose, and eyes seem vaguely human," said Dan, "And it spends more time on the ground than other monkeys. We have four embryos, due in 16 weeks, and we will try early childhood growth accceleration on two of them."

"What we discovered," said Ed, "Is external artificial wombs are off-the-shelf items in the Chinese province of Guangju. Different sizes and external oxygen/ nutrition support systems are available," said Mary, "So we will order four monkey sized ones at first." "What we've read in published papers on acceleration techniques," said Ed, "Suggests physical and mental growth are not well matched. Our proposal is to push human physical growth in deep sleep so a two year old would be as tall as a four year old, then let them spend a year of slow time in normie kindergarten acquiring language and social skills, then back to deep sleep for three years, then a slow year in normie middle school. That would correspond to 4+1+6+1=12 yrs effective growth in 2+1+3+1=7 yrs actual. Now comes puberty and the biggest height growth; two years deep sleep and one year of normie senior high school. If we take weekly blood samples to monitor all hormone levels and monthly mri scans, we might figure out when and how we could safely accelerate more." "Another observation we made," said Mary, "Is that the number of papers increased every year from 2007 to 2014, and dropped to zero by 2016. The research didn't stop, it just went private, underground, heh."

"Dr.Liu is very happy with your experiment's progress," said Stakka, "And we are too." "For the next two months you will continue with these primate  trials," said Renka, "While Ed, Mary, Karl, and Robin participate with us in the launch and sea trials of Arkon Delta. We will also supervise the construction of two primate labs, a virus lab, a pig lab, and two clone labs." "As we get close to Arkon One," said Stakka, "Each module with a primate lab will come by and pick up a team and their experiment."

   (expect posts Sat 8 am EST)

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