Chapter 20 silent battle
A silent battle was fought at this moment, Nakata Village, these fifteen people, on behalf of the entire human race, using their lives as a bet, the first encounter with alien life ...
These Martian beings, without any intelligence, are the result of billions of years of natural selection down. And these fifteen people in Nakata Village, representing, but the highest human courage and wisdom.
"These microorganisms are suspected to be the size of a virus, possibly more complex than a virus, all surviving in the uranium mining area." Nakadamura wrote down the available facts in the book on the left, then wrote his own conjectures in the book on the right for later reference.
He knew he didn't have much time, so he researched the basics as best he could.
"The temperature on Mars is too cold, even up to minus 120 degrees at night, and the environment is too harsh for life to survive. But in the uranium mining area, because of the slow nuclear fission relationship of uranium and polonium ore, the temperature will be stable at about minus 30 degrees to 10 degrees Celsius. Such a temperature is perfect for these microorganisms to survive."
"This also explains why no life forms can be found elsewhere, but only in the uranium mining area there is life."
"The uranium area, not only has a temperature, but also a small supply of energy. After leaving this area and losing the energy supply, these microorganisms will gradually die."
"In the harsh environment, they have evolved the ability to reproduce rapidly. Humans are like fat sheep without resistance, almost becoming a breeding ground for them to reproduce, and the existing human immune system is simply too late to react ..."
After writing this, an assistant came running over with a pile of information in his hand, "Doctor, the information of more than 300 patients is ready."
"Okay, you can count them first and report back to me."
Nakadamura shook his head, he felt a little itchy throat, a little headache, there should be symptoms of the onset of the disease. He immediately recorded in his notebook, "2 hours and 11 minutes, light dizziness, temperature 37.6, still conscious."
Immediately afterwards, he scraped a bit of mineral material with a knife, put it under the microscope, and observed it carefully.
"I think that there are at least thousands of these microorganisms, and the disease-causing ones are perhaps only a few of them. Under the optical microscope, you can clearly see the process of an ordinary cell being killed, and I guessed correctly that the attack process of these microorganisms is more similar to a virus."
"However, the interferons we already have are largely ineffective against them. It means that they are built differently from all known viruses." {Interferon, a broad-spectrum antiviral agent}
"Doctor, I counted that patients with low fevers have developed symptoms such as respiratory distress. But the patients with high fever are in turn better, why? Strange ..." the assistant said with some doubts.
A high fever is better than a low fever? Why? Why? It's the same coma ...
"Why?" Nakadamura muttered.
He stood up and stepped back and forth, as if something had been neglected by himself.
At that moment, an idea struck Nakadamura's mind like lightning, and he suddenly jumped up, "Yes, the temperature! It must be the temperature! These Martian beings stay in the cold for a long time, so they must be very poor at resisting heat!"
That must be it!
As soon as this idea came to him, Nakatamura got a rush of excitement, he had a feeling that he was right, he must be right.
An ordinary cell is completely invaded by the virus in a few minutes. Why have humans survived for so long? There have been no individual cases of death so far. It must be the temperature!
The human body temperature of 37 degrees Celsius is not very adaptable for these viruses. And with a high fever rising to 40 degrees, this adaptive capacity of the Martian virus is even weaker.
It's the heat that's protecting humans!
"Quick! Conduct a temperature test!" Nakadamura shouted excitedly ...
Four hours later, Nakadamura was infected and fell into a coma. But he left behind a valuable piece of information, these Martian microbes, extremely afraid of heat!
They are extremely resistant to cold, and can survive at -60 degrees Celsius, zero degrees Celsius is their most active temperature, but by 20 degrees Celsius, activity generally drops by 50%, and at an ambient temperature of 40 degrees, activity drops by more than 90%!
It is the high body temperature that saved mankind!
The reason for this is the natural selection of organisms. The natural selection of life applies not only to Earth, but also to Mars.
There is a kind of blind fish on Earth, because they live for a long time in the cave *, no light for years, their eyes slowly degenerated, but their sense of hearing, smell and touch is exceptionally sensitive.
There are 550 species of beetles on Madeira Island in the Atlantic Ocean, 200 of which have very underdeveloped wings and cannot fly. Of the 29 locally endemic insect genera, 23 have all degenerated wings. These beetles hide when the wind is blowing and only come out when the wind and sun are shining.
Insects that occasionally land on islands are preserved from being blown into the sea by the wind because their wings have degenerated and they cannot fly. Instead, insects that can fly are blown into the sea by high winds ...
In the north and south polar regions of the earth, ice cellars, year-round snowy mountains, deep sea and permafrost areas, there live some cold-loving microorganisms. Specialized cold-loving bacteria can live in the environment below 20 ℃, higher than 20 ℃ but difficult to survive.
This is natural selection, the survival of the fittest, the unfit are eliminated!
Martian life, long-term cold environment, their resistance to cold greatly enhanced, but, their resistance to heat is almost none!
Because they simply do not need the ability to resist heat, so this ability has not evolved.
This also gives humans a way to kill the virus: heat! According to Nakadamura's research, as soon as it reaches 60 degrees Celsius, all microbial activity drops to almost zero.
Therefore, the entire laboratory heat and air conditioning turned on to the maximum, almost scorched with high temperature.
Patients with fever are not bothered, and those with low fever, instead, they have to take some medicine and let them have a high fever, as long as it does not exceed 41 degrees. The high temperature that humans can withstand for a long time is about 41 degrees!
41 degrees, now becomes the protector of mankind!
...
"Well?" Oliver took care of the ship's interior and hurried to the Mars base, "Any results yet?"
"Dr. Nakadamura is in a coma, and the person who is now taking over his job is Mr. Constantine, a biologist." A scientist replied, "Dr. Nakadamura has made a great discovery that these viruses are poorly resistant to high temperatures and that making the patient run a high fever can effectively relieve the condition.
Right now, Dr. Constantine is observing the virus with a scanning tunneling microscope ..."
Oliver nodded, clenching his fists anxiously and pacing back and forth.
His assistant, Yuriko, also came over, and she wasn't as calm as she used to be. Because her father is Dr. Roman, is still in a coma in the ward, and does not know how the situation is ... although not her own father, she is still a little anxious.
Oliver sighed a long sigh, always let people have a high fever is only delayed, the cure is not the root cause ah.
Although it is said that the virus can be killed when it reaches 60 degrees Celsius, but sixty degrees ah, people also die, right ... human fever to 44 degrees, it is almost the limit.
"Can we hurry up ..." Oliver knew as soon as he opened his mouth that the request was really unreasonable, but he really couldn't help it, he was in a hurry.
...
Mars base, biochemical laboratory, after a high-temperature sterilization, the current scientific manpower has been expanded to 30 people.
"Protein composition assay results came out, gosh, their cell walls commonly have contain metal elements, surprisingly contains a large number of lead elements and copper elements ... Is it organic metal shell?" A scientist exclaimed.
"Dr. Wenlan, the outer layer of the virus is not called the cell wall, it is called the coat ..."
"Hey, don't count so much, it's not necessarily a virus yet ... I think it's because of this metal shell that they can effectively absorb nuclear radiation. Otherwise, the Dna inside these viruses would have been pierced by the neutron stream long ago. If we had this kind of radiation resistant material, tsk tsk ..."
"Yes, I heard that the concentration of this uranium mine is very high, and maybe there are elements of strong radiation such as plutonium and radon. Because of the presence of these metal shells, they are very resistant to radiation, but much less heat resistant."
"Well, let's not talk too much. We still have to find a drug that works for the human body and can kill them at the same time ... Our time is still limited." One scientist snapped.
The crowd nodded and continued to start working.
Although the lab was autoclaved, the risk of infection was still present. They had to make contact with patients, obtain first-hand information, do biological tests, and observe active specimens, so they could get infected if they were not careful. No matter what, they still had to hurry ...