(Tuesday, January 21, 2014; Cypress High School, California)

Next, I asked Mingshan and Mu to demonstrate their analysis of Matsuo Basho haiku. ”

Xu Mingshan heard the words of his teacher, Mr. Virgil, stood up from his seat, glanced at Du Mu, tidied up his tie a little, and then walked up to the podium. He was taking a class in world literature, and he was talking about the Japanese literary genre of "scarlet sentences".

I have to say that with the strong learning ability of the soul clone, he easily mastered eight foreign languages in just a few weeks, and it is not difficult to analyze even in Japanese - more importantly, the compatibility between scarlet sentences and English is not very good, and the translation of "古池や蛙飛びこむ水の音" as "Old pond / Frogs jumped in / Sound of water" is simply not aesthetically pleasing.

It's not as good as the Chinese version of "Silent Ancient Pond, Frog Leaping in Blue Water and Light Waves, Hearing the Quiet Rhyme at First Glance", or transforming into a five-character Tang poem "Ancient Beach Frog Jumping In, Stopping Water and Raising a Clear Sound" is also much better than the English version.

Xu Mingshan secretly scolded himself in his heart, and then corrected his attitude and put on a relatively serious expression. This is a group assignment for the topic of "Scarlet Sentences", and he and Du Mu happened to draw the scarlet sentences of Matsuo Basho as the theme.

When appreciating this poem, it should be considered from the point of view of symbolism. The author created the work in spring, the frog symbolizes the bright spring light, and the ancient pond is an eternal time that transcends the seasons. ”

"Let's imagine a scene in a lonely temple, where the spring breeze blows on the water, but the old pond is still as silent as ever. Perhaps uncomfortably depressed, the frog jumped into the pool with a pop, breaking the seemingly eternal silence. ”

But the sound of the frog diving was short-lived, and after a ding-dong sound, the monastery fell into eternal silence. The eternity symbolized by the frog itself and the fleeting moment of diving, between silence and noise, eternity and instantaneous changes and oppositions, give people a subtle and vague heartbeat, and show the emptiness and sublimeness of life in the Zen silence and emptiness. ”

Xu Mingshan stopped here and motioned for Du Mu beside him to continue.

"To interpret this literary genre, we have to mention the aesthetic sense of the Japanese. First of all, it is one of the literary aesthetic concepts of the Heian period in Japan, which mainly expresses and vents the deep sorrow and nostalgia of the characters, as well as the feelings of impermanence in the human world, through the writing of scenes—in this scarlet poem, the splash that disappears instantly. ”

"Mysterious, to some extent, means hiding and not revealing, just like the few numbers in this scarlet poem, it does not need to be said in detail to show its empty and profound Zen flavor. Wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetic centered on accepting ephemerality and imperfection. Ancient ponds seem to be eternal, but even if the sea turns into mulberry fields, once the balance of the water cycle is broken, it will eventually disappear without a trace, while frogs seem to have a short lifespan, but their genes can be passed down from the Triassic to the present. ”

Mr. Virgil did not seem to hear their slip of the tongue, and looked at them with admiration. Most of the local students in the audience looked calm, and only a few students who chose Chinese as a foreign language smiled mysteriously.

……

(Monday, February 3, 2014; Everglades National Park, Florida)

The genetics and molecular biology of snakes are quite interesting. Xu Mingshan deeply felt the inadequacy of the knowledge system, and although he took an AP biology course, he still felt that it was too superficial, so he has been making up for this knowledge recently.

Today, however, his soul clone is not studying in the virtual world. Thanks to the new modules developed by Sora Akiyama, they can truly divide their minds without worrying about losing control of their real bodies when they focus on the virtual world. If it weren't for the restrictions of the Spiritual Network Regulations, it would theoretically be possible to create more soul clones.

"Professor Reed, how long do you have to get to your destination?"

"It's going to be soon, about twenty minutes. It can't be helped, after all, ships are not as unrestrained as flying. ”

Xu Mingshan and Professor Reed are riding a broomstick in the virtual world, and below them are the hovercraft that the other body and his students are riding. The sun is blazing and the temperature is gradually rising, which makes it easier for reptiles to move.

Burmese pythons mate in early spring, and females lay eggs between March and April, and can lay 12-80 eggs at a time. The eggs produced by female Burmese pythons are not always fertilized, and the more mating times, the higher the proportion of fertilized eggs. Florida authorities encourage the use of anacondas implanted with signal transmitters to look for other boas during mating season, often with a single catch being a litter. In the real world, Professor Reid is leading the team to do this.

Twenty minutes is not long, but it is not short, Xu Mingshan enjoyed the wonderful natural scenery along the way, and it passed in a short time.

"Alright, here we are. ”

Professor Reid and his three students docked their boat at the "island". It's an oasis surrounded by water, with bare cypress trees towering in the water, dense branches slowing the already slow flow to almost none. There are green duckweed plants floating on the water, and the trunk is wrapped in a layer of red moss, which looks a little strange in this woods that lack sunlight.

"According to the signal, the male snake was ahead. ”

One of the students confirmed the location of the python, and Professor Reed and his party headed deeper into the woods. They were apparently accustomed to fieldwork that resembled coolie labor, each carrying the necessary equipment on his back and not the slightest excess of clutter. In order to prevent being attacked by a possible mutant python, Xu Mingshan and Professor Reed explored the way for people in reality in the virtual world.

After more than two months of setting and adjusting, his soul clone can receive all-round visual information without dead ends, and the electromagnetic wave frequency range of vision and the sound wave frequency range of hearing are far beyond that of normal humans. In addition, high-dimensional radar based on space-time technology can accurately locate the distribution of matter in space. This massive amount of information pours into the mental organs located in the mental network, where it is analyzed and synthesized into information that can be understood by the subjective consciousness.

With such a strong ability to obtain information, Xu Mingshan and Professor Reed did not spend much effort to find the python.

"Goddam/My god, this snake seems to be a little too big!" the two muttered.

The male snake they implanted in the transmitter was no more than 3.8 meters long, which is a normal size, while the female snake in front of them was 9.84 meters long, weighed 172 kilograms, and had a small bucket-thick waist.

"Oops, we probably don't have enough tranquilizer bombs. Professor Reed frowned, "I should have thought that in the past, we didn't need anesthesia to catch snakes, but there are not enough people for such a large snake." ”

Catching a python is not as difficult as most people think. Unlike in the movies, the other party doesn't seem to be worried about not being able to deal with the python - the Smith & Wesson M29 pistol he carries with him is enough to knock down a large animal such as an African buffalo, polar bear, wild boar or even an elephant at close range, and the Burmese python is not a problem at all. But if you want to capture this guy alive, you can't deal with it so simply and rudely.

"Captured alive, are you going to take it back and raise it?"

"I have this idea, but it's mostly an autopsy. ”

Xu Mingshan and Professor Reed have been in contact for a while, and they know that the other party is not a person who likes to pretend to be serious, so they chatted with each other in this unrestrained virtual world.

"By the way, with the amount of food this big guy eats, you don't have enough money to spend on your laboratory?"

"Of course I know about it, so I'm going to raise it in the virtual world. ”

It didn't take long for a real-world team of four to find the place at Professor Reed's suggestion, all amazed by the sheer size of the female Burmese python. One of the students hesitated for a moment and then asked:

"Teach...... Professor, what are we going to do with this guy?"

"Let's take a look first, I can't do it, I can only kill. Such a large mutant python will only completely disrupt the ecological balance here. ”

Professor Reid sighed and turned to rummage through his backpack, figuring out the anesthetic and the corresponding firing gun. Xu Mingshan noticed that the amount of anesthetic in that small tube was really not much, and it was difficult to say whether it could be completely anesthetized against such a large reptile.

At this time, the pythons have already begun to mate. Smaller male pythons have turned out their bag-shaped hemipenis, and the uneven flesh spines look disgusting. A male snake stepped forward and inserted one side of the hemipenis into the cloaca of the female. Compared to this large female snake, it is no different in size from a dwarf.

"Forget it, shoot. Steven, get ready to sample. ”

Professor Reed approached the mating pythons, quickly loaded them for aim, and snapped their fragile heads cleanly. Blood mixed with brain plasma flowed on the damp grass.

In the real world, a student named Steven begins to sample dead corpses, while in the virtual world, Xu Mingshan and Professor Reed, as always, use spells such as "Mage's Hand" and "Group Teleportation" to easily pack and take the pythons away.

……

(Tuesday, February 4, 2014, afternoon; Grant Reptile Institute, Florida)

"The results of genome sequencing are similar to last time, and they are all typical hybrids. ”

Professor Reed frowned, pacing back and forth in the hallways of the lab, his face unsightly.

"Something has to be done. The ecosystem of the Everglades has finally recovered under the covert influence of the Galactic Federation, but now it is in danger of being swept away by pythons. These monsters reproduce too fast. ”

Xu Mingshan looked at the other party's face, nodded silently, and quickly analyzed the existing information in his heart. In fact, hybridization between different species of pythons is common in reptile circles, and snake enthusiasts often breed and select snakes with different patterns. They have given many nice names to the boa constrictors produced by crossbreeding, such as Tiger, Sunfire, Orange-Glow, etc., and it seems that they have recently used gene editing technology to artificially modify the corresponding genes......

Gene Editing Technology...... Gene editing technology?

Xu Mingshan suddenly remembered a recent paper published in Nature Methods, which mentioned that the current mainstream gene editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 has off-target problems, which may trigger hundreds of unexpected genetic mutations. The extreme adaptability of the Burmese python involves rapid and large amounts of DNA transcription, and its use of genetic information is very flexible.

"Professor Reed, I think maybe someone has gotten away with ......"

He briefly explained his guess and mobilized the simulation system of the virtual world to conduct the experiment. The Galaxy Federation unexpectedly opened up the new module this time, and with the support of strong technical support far beyond that of humans, the results of the simulation experiment came out quickly.

As he expected, CRISPR-Cas9 can indeed cause this effect. These mutant pythons do not break the limits of physics and chemistry on the size and physiological activities of organisms.

"MD, bastards! I don't know what I'm doing!" Professor Reed was annoyed.

Come to think of it, reptile players who can play with gene editing technology have their own scientific literacy is definitely not low, and it is impossible not to know the ecological impact that the release of the mutant python will bring. Whether it is due to the inability to afford the cost of breeding, or due to various accidents that cause the python to escape, these people who modify the python's genes have an inescapable responsibility.

"Professor, what's next? Do you just sit idly by?"

"Of course not. But taking stock of the entire swamp is not something a few of us can do. I'll have to report this to the local government, and maybe the snake catch bounty needs to be added. ”

Professor Reed said this, took a deep breath, and then suddenly smiled: "The idea is yours, and the experiment is yours...... Xu Mingshan, are you interested in cooperating with me?"

Xu Mingshan was stunned for a moment, and before he could react, the other party continued:

"You see, about the impact of gene editing technology on hybrid pythons, you have done experiments in the virtual world in molecular biology, and I and my students will investigate the zoology part. Do you want me to contact the lab for you? After all, things in this virtual world can't be brought directly to reality. ”

"If that's the case, I'm very happy!" Xu Mingshan was surprised and delighted, and then calmed down, "As for the laboratory, Du Mu's family is involved in biomedicine, and we often go to their laboratory to play, so this is not a problem." ”

……