Chapter 212

Under a million times electron microscope, you can see that things like gray white and translucent beans are neatly connected together to form a strip like a pearl necklace. Each two necklaces are twisted into a white twist, one by one, and arranged together, like a piece of old linen.

Mei Tui, wearing a white coat and holding a pipe, stood in front of the big screen and looked at the virus sample analysis picture. His hair exploded in a mess, as if brain energy was constantly radiating out.

Aoki and Mei Ziqing sat down like pupils waiting for the teacher to have a class.

"This is a virus I've never seen before. Maybe it's not very accurate to say virus now, because it has some characteristics of virus and virus like microorganisms at the same time, but it's closer to the virus. I'll call it virus for the time being and give it a name - gray brain virus."

Mei finally spoke, and the slide pictures on the wall kept changing.

"Look." the picture on the big screen is fixed and enlarged, and you can clearly see a local single bean like particle. "This is a virus particle."

Then the picture is restored to linen and moved to the right. On the left, there is a mess of gray white translucent beans, which is in contrast to the original picture.

Mei Tui pointed to the picture and said, "on the left is Neisseria meningitidis and on the right is gray brain virus. Regardless of their arrangement, just look at the shape of virus particles. The two viruses are very similar, but the size is much different. The diameter of Neisseria meningitidis is about 0.6 microns, which is 50 times larger than gray brain virus."

"Before that, the smallest virus in the world was an artificial virus synthesized in the British National Laboratory. Because the large and complex proteins constituting the virus shell were abandoned, but very short protein fragments were designed, the diameter of the virus was only 12 nm. But the average diameter of the gray brain virus you see now is less than 10 nm, which is the smallest Only seven nanometers. "

"There is no such virus sample in the hospital, so it is impossible to screen it, and it is difficult for ordinary laboratories to isolate such a small virus from damaged gray matter cells. If someone hadn't given me enough tips, I think I probably wouldn't find it. No one would have thought that there was such a small virus, and it would pretend to be dead."

"Pretend to be dead?"

"That's right. It invades our cerebral cortex and makes brain cells gradually necrotic. Because the viruses are arranged neatly according to the hinges, the dead brain cells look like weathered fibers. Generally speaking, the virus will multiply in large numbers and then infect the surrounding cells, or invade other tissues of the body through the blood, and the viruses in the dead brain cells lose their survival The environment will also die. But this virus is special. Its target seems very clear. It only infects the cerebral cortex, or even a specific area, and does not enter the blood vessels and cerebrospinal fluid. The virus bodies on the dead brain cells seem to have died, but after isolation, they show activity again, indicating that they are not It is a simple virus, which has the characteristics of virus like microorganisms. "

"This is the reason why old Xia and aunt Yao have lesions in their brains?"

"Yes. In addition to the sampling examination of Mr. Lester by Hopkins Medical Center and the brain cell sample test in Peter's laboratory in Chicago provided by William Wolff, there are four sample evidences. It is very certain that the existence of this virus is the main cause of their brain lesions. However, the research on it is still in a very preliminary stage. If you want to The hope of curing the disease in the short term is extremely slim. "

Aoki asked, "does the virus have anything to do with the parasitic consciousness of invasion?"

"There is no way to prove that there is no direct relationship between them in theory," Mei said

Mei Ziqing interrupted, "but at present, everyone infected with the virus has just been invaded by consciousness. Can't there be such a coincidence?"

"This is what makes people wonder, and our research is in trouble." Mei tried to take a smoke. The smoke blew out and floated through the light of the projector, casting a constantly changing shadow in the slide on the wall.

"Both Mr. Lester's analysis and our recent research can confirm that the intruder is a pure conscious body, and their purpose is to find a suitable host to parasitize. From this point of view, their invasion is conscious and has nothing to do with the material itself. No matter how small the virus is, it is also composed of material, and the structure and gene composition of the virus It is in line with the biological order of our world. It is unlikely that it was brought from outer space. "

"Moreover, they invade human consciousness to occupy our brain, but this virus will destroy the brain, which is contrary to their purpose!"

Mei Ziqing said: "is it possible that it is the result of a similar rejection reaction caused by a self-defense behavior of the human brain after invasion, such as inflammation and fever?"

Mei nodded and said: "It's not impossible. The premise is that our body can recognize our own consciousness, which is another research field. If so, grey brain virus either lurks in human body as early as some bacteria, or can be actively generated by cells under certain circumstances like biological enzymes, but many of our experimental results show that both possibilities are possible Does not exist. "

Aoki asked, "if the virus is not controlled, what will be the final consequence?"

"Theoretically, it should be a vegetable, because the virus only infects a specific cerebral cortex and affects the nerve center without damaging the brain stem," Metso said

"Vegetable? Brain? Vegetable brain..." Aoki seems to think of something.

Mei Ziqing suddenly asked, "Professor, you just said that someone reminded you to find this virus?"

"Yes, someone sent me a super secret email, suggesting that there might be an undetected directed parasitic virus, and said that if I found it, I would provide me with more materials to study the source and characteristics of the virus," Mei said

"Then, he knows more than we do?" Mei Ziqing was a little curious about who it was. "Then why doesn't he study it himself, but through you?"

"I'm afraid only he knows," Mei said with a shrug.

"Could it be a trap?" Mei Ziqing warned warily.

"Even if it's a trap, we can only jump in. I've told him the progress here by email. I received his reply last night that the following information must be submitted face-to-face, so I agreed to meet in my laboratory today." Mei looked at her watch. "The time is not much. If he is a punctual man, it should be almost here now."

Not long after he said that, the intelligent AI prompt of "guest visiting" sounded. The scene of the laboratory gate appeared on the large screen on the wall. A woman with excellent appearance and temperament, holding the hand of a lovely little girl, was looking at the access control camera and smiling at them.

"Ah, I know her!" cried Mei Ziqing in surprise. "She once came to the professor, but Professor, you were locking yourself up and no one was seen!"

However, at this time, Aoki was more surprised than Mei Ziqing.