Qu Guangquan discussed, and there were really many people who felt the same way.

A student raised his hand to speak: "Mr. Liu, in today's science and technology, is there a project like radium extraction, if so, I will also do one, even if it is twenty tons to one gram, it is worth it!"

Liu Yanqiu smiled: "Now that science and technology are so developed, there should be many similar projects." I would like to introduce one to the students, paclitaxel, which is the best natural anti-cancer drug discovered so far, and has been widely used in the treatment of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, some head and neck cancers and lung cancer. ”

Liu Yanqiu paused, glanced at Qu Guangquan, and her eyes were full of hope.

"As a diterpenoid alkaloid compound with anticancer activity, paclitaxel has been greatly favored by botanists, chemists, pharmacologists and molecular biologists due to its novel and complex chemical structure, extensive and significant biological activity, new and unique mechanism of action, and scarce natural resources. Paclitaxel has become a world-renowned anti-cancer star and research focus in the second half of the 20th century. ”

"Mr. Liu, where can paclitaxel be extracted? I'll go and extract it tomorrow. "This one is more positive.

"It was first in 1963 that American chemists Varney and Wall isolated a crude extract of paclitaxel from the bark and wood of a tree called Pacific fir that grows in the great forests of the western United States, and now paclitaxel is mainly extracted directly from yew. We have it in many places in China. ”

"It's definitely a good thing to be able to cure cancer!

"Count me in. ”

"The content of paclitaxel in the plant body is quite low, and only 0.069% of the bark of the short-leaved yew tree with the highest content is currently recognized, and about 13.6kg of bark can produce 1g of paclitaxel, which requires 3-12 yew trees that are more than 100 years old to treat an ovarian cancer patient, which has also caused a large number of felling of yew, resulting in the endangerment of this precious tree species. Qu Guangquan interjected.

"I've heard of it. "After all, I am a Chemistry Olympiad player, and there are still students who usually pay attention to this knowledge," It is said to be a natural rare plant recognized as endangered in the world, and it is an ancient relict tree species left by Quaternary glaciers, which has a history of 2.5 million years on the earth. Due to the slow growth rate and poor regeneration ability of yew under natural conditions, for a long time, there has been no large-scale yew raw material forest base in the world. ”

"Wow, the tree is a precious tree, and the yield is so low, so paclitaxel must be very expensive. ”

"It's very expensive. The market price of paclitaxel extracted from yew under the current extraction technology is more than 10 million US dollars per kilogram!" Liu Yanqiu replied: "The extraction of paclitaxel itself is a technology that needs to be developed urgently. ”

Liu Yanqiu's voice raised a few decibels: "Now the highest direction of paclitaxel research is the artificial synthesis of paclitaxel, that is, not to cut down yew, but to use modern technology to synthesize." It's like synthesizing ordinary chemicals!"

As soon as Liu Yanqiu's words fell, the laboratory was a fryer.

"$10 million a kilogram, if you come to two kilograms, wouldn't you be a billionaire!"

"Yes, then we can start researching now, can we keep up with the world's scientific and technological trends!"

"I'm not doing anything now, I'm going to play paclitaxel!Haha, if I get a few kilograms out, it's fame and fortune!"

。。。。。。

Liu Yanqiu: "Let me tell you a story, in the early days of the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Mr. Shen Yuan, who was the director of the Department of Aviation of Tsinghua University, gave a mathematics class to students in a junior high school. ”

"Teacher Shen Yuan finally said: the queen of natural science is mathematics, the crown of mathematics is number theory, and the Goldbach conjecture is a pearl in the crown!"

Many students were shocked when they heard this. It's a pity that there was a shortage of soldiers at that time, and Mr. Shen was quickly left behind by the vast majority of students. ”

In February 1973, one of his papers on Goldbach's conjecture was finally published, which immediately caused a sensation in the world's mathematical circles!

"Chen Jingrun!"

Mathematician Chen Jingrun's popularity back then was more than any star!

It's a pity that the vigorous 80s never returned, and the lofty status of scientists in their minds at that time is difficult to have today.

Liu Yanqiu said affectionately: "Although I can't compare with Professor Shen Yuan, I still hope that there will be a Chen Jingrun among my students. The synthesis of paclitaxel will not be as difficult to decipher as the Goldbach conjecture, however, the practical significance of extracting paclitaxel is much greater than that of the Goldbach conjecture. I hope that among you, there will be a student who has made brilliant achievements in paclitaxel research. ”

All the classmates looked at Qu Guangquan in unison, including Chen Yao.

Wang Mei bit her lip excitedly: "Qu Guangquan, don't let everyone down, even if you don't donate, I will support you!"

Seeing this situation, Liu Yanqiu continued: "However, unlike mathematics, other modern scientific inventions and discoveries are no longer the era of going it alone, and any technological breakthrough and achievement of scientific and technological achievements are the result of teamwork. Therefore, I hope that our classmates will unite with each other, support each other, and create brilliance together. ”

This sentence mobilized the emotions of all the students in the audience, and the enthusiasm for doing the experiment was even higher.

The experiment continued, and Liu Yanqiu left the podium and quietly walked to Qu Guangquan's side.

"You should know more about paclitaxel than I do, I only noticed the information after my mother was sick. ”

Qu Guangquan nodded. In the last life, paclitaxel was such an anti-cancer star, and Qu Guangquan's attention was quite high.

"My family has also collected a lot of information, do you know what he said when the two of us were discussing paclitaxel?"

What do you two say? How does Qu Guangquan know!

He said that if Qu Guangquan devotes himself to researching science, he will definitely be able to make a lot of gains in paclitaxel, because you are more motivated than other geniuses, as long as you see your sick mother, you have pressure that others don't have. ”

Qu Guangquan bit his lip and nodded. The pressure is not small, and one of the motivations for working hard to earn money is to relieve my mother's illness.

"But, Qu Guangquan, you are now spending all the remaining energy on doing business!" Liu Yanqiu sighed, "You are the most scientist-like student I have ever taught, and you are also the most talented, if you don't become a scientist after becoming an adult, it is really a sad thing!"

If you put this statement now, it should be the opposite, it is better to be a rich man than a scientist!

However, that was the standard of human value at that time.