Chapter 102: Life Incubator
Chapter 102: Life Incubator
Half a day later.
Hannibal pushed the equipment containing the artificial endometrium and followed Chen Chen to an unmarked laboratory on the sixth floor.
Unlike other laboratories, there was no label specifying the purpose of this particular laboratory. There was only a red sign.
The sign was labeled “Restricted Zone” on the top part while the bottom part read “Experiment area, unauthorized personnel not allowed”.
“Boss.”
“Boss.”
The young men dressed in white lab coats were already standing outside by the alloy gate of the laboratory entrance.
The two young men looked like they were in their mid-twenties. One of them appeared to be Jewish. He even specifically adorned his lab coat with tassels, the other one appeared to be either from the Mainland of SouthEast Asia.
Chen Chen nodded and informed the three of them, “For the following period, you guys will be partners.”
“Nice to meet you.” Hannibal promptly shook the hands of the two men.
“Nice to meet you. I’m John von Neumann, European, biological studies.”
“I’m Li Lei. I’m from the Mainland, senior in Princeton.”
“The name’s Hannibal, Hannibal Caesar. I’m from MIT back in North America but I’ve since dropped out...”
One was an introverted Chinese man and one was a Jewish with an intense temperament. In comparison, Hannibal appeared very normal. After they had exchanged introductions, they fell into silence again.
Chen Chen paid no mind to them and turned to the security camera. After several seconds, upon Chen Chen’s camera’s retina identification, the alloy door suddenly opened.
“Come right in.”
Upon walking in, Chen Chen turned around to look at Hannibal and the trio who stood dumbfounded. He urged them to follow.
“Oh, ok... Boss.”
The three of them followed him in.
It was only when they walked in that they realized this laboratory was strangely spacious. It was several times larger than the previous laboratory. More importantly, they had never noticed the existence of such a laboratory.
“It’s just a very common spatial illusion.”
Chen Chen mentioned before he pushed out a few cylindrical devices from the side.
Hannibal looked over and saw that these cylindrical devices were about thirty centimeters in diameter and one meter in height. The entire body was made of tempered glass. Only the base and top were made of metal, and the inside was empty.
“These are...” The three of them eyed the devices and felt a strange sense of familiarity.
“Feels familiar, doesn’t it?”
Chen Chen raised the question like he was a mentor. “I’d say you guys saw this in a sci-fi movie before.”
“The incubator used for growing clones!?” upon hearing Chen Chen’s clue, Li Lei suddenly made the connection and asked in shock.
“That’s right, I was inspired by the movie and designed something similar but I prefer the name: Life Incubator.”
Chen Chen patted the device which made a clapping sound. He then pushed out a constant-temperature incubator. “There are five human embryos here that have entered the sac state. Based on your knowledge, I’d say you should know how to proceed with this.”
The three of them were taken aback when they heard Chen Chen. Without a moment’s thought, they rushed ahead and looked into the incubator together.
“It’s been fourteen days?”
Hannibal mumbled, “I’ll need a micromanipulator to implant these human embryos into the artificial endometrium. I’ll also need synthetic amniotic fluid from minerals, urea, uric acid, creatinine, glucose, and synthetic amniotic fluid like amylase...”
“And it’ll need to be done before the embryo consumes the nutrients in the yolk, otherwise, the embryo is likely to die due to nutrition insufficiency.” John added.
“But what comes next? The blood supply in these artificial endometriums can’t possibly support maturing embryos.” Li Lei sounded uncertain.
“Fourteen weeks.”
Chen Chen answered with a single finger raised, “Fourteen weeks is my estimated period. By then the fetus would’ve formed the umbilical cord and placenta. Once the umbilical cord is formed, there’ll be no need for endometrium intervention.
“By then, we can use an artificial lung oxygenator to connect to the blood vessels on the umbilical cord of the fetus to feed oxygen directly. We can also transmit inorganic salts, vitamins, fats, proteins, and other substances required for growth directly into the fetus.”
“The optimization process will be extremely delicate, it may be very difficult to accomplish.” Hannibal pondered for a moment, a weary look appeared on his face.
The way he saw it, these methods were a little too optimistic. The process of simulating an intrauterine environment was inherently incredibly difficult and the odds of success were extremely unlikely.
“Don’t have to worry about that. Upon arriving at that point, somebody is eventually going to get it done.”
Chen Chen pointed out with a sense of profoundness.
It was true. For the current state of technology, it was difficult to simulate an intrauterine environment. Specifically, the act of supplementing nutrients was not something that could be accomplished via labor.
It did not prove to be an issue for Chen Chen. Common men may not be able to achieve the task, but that did not mean that artificial intelligence could not pull it off.
Several days ago, Chen Chen specifically designated a section of land in the research center to construct a factory. He then facilitated it with thousands of servers.
After that, Chen Chen relocated Little X from the Mainland to here.
Apart from that, to alleviate the network issues, he had constructed a macro base station at his expense. This effectively got rid of the issue with wireless connectivity.
With Little X’s proficiency in performing macro-control management around the clock, all that was left to do was to run the experiment several times. Upon collecting enough data to build a data model, the optimized cultivation model should be constructed in no time.
Moreover, all of the equipment in the laboratory was custom-built in Switzerland. Each one of them could be connected to the network to allow Little X to directly control them.
Therefore, barring any major slipups from the three of them, Chen Chen did not need to put the chances of failure into consideration.
“Right.”
Chen Chen suddenly reminded. “The reason I’m cultivating the cloned embryos isn’t so that they could be birthed successfully. I have no intentions of actually birthing them, is that understood?”
“You’re saying?” The three of them raised their heads quizzingly.
“A targeted inhibition form of serotonin.”
Chen Chen took out a slip of paper to write down a line of the chemical formula under the intense observation of the trio. “Upon injecting this targeted inhibition form of serotonin, the development of its brains will be effectively inhibited. But it will not inhibit physical development.”
The three of them quickly noted Chen Chen’s usage of the term “it” when referring to the cloned embryos.
“Understood. This is the most optimal route.”
Li Lei and John nodded in agreement. So long as the embryo’s brain was not developed, it would not be able to form a conscience of its own.
To be fair, even if the brain was developed during its fetal form, there should not be a sense of self-awareness just yet. Still, Chen Chen’s methods were unquestionably more humane.
In terms of human physiology, they were just considered an empty shell made of flesh, devoid of a structural brain.
Truth be told, Hannibal was not in the least bothered by these things. However, since Chen Chen was his employer, he figured it was best to do as instructed.
After passing on these instructions, Chen Chen effectively handed the reigns of the laboratory to the trio and proceeded to turn around, and make his exit.
These three men were biology savants and were also Chen Chen’s potential candidates for God’s Forbidden Zone. Now that Chen Chen’s company was growing by the minute, he no longer had time to conduct the experiments himself. He needed to nurture a group of successors.
The tasks of cultivating cloned embryos were entrusted to these hand-picked savants of his.