Hello Habitants! The Harvard Necromancer talks about how scientists would behave if magic really existed.
It's science fiction with an emphasis on the first word. The author writes about both real and fictional scientific research, but describes fictional ones in such a way that they meet all the criteria for real scientific works. This book is a bit like the mysterious "Voynich Manuscript" - a code written in an unknown, most likely non-existent, language using an unknown alphabet, but difficult to distinguish from an authentic ancient manuscript. Scientific miracles are manifested not in the form of burning bushes and voices in the head, but in the form of unexpected readings of instruments, statistical deviations in the lifespan of experimental worms and mice, as well as other results of experiments and observations that are amenable to objective analysis.
I do not want to write a genre "dying out", but very rare: intellectual fiction. The book, which consists entirely of a single dialogue, is deceptively similar to an ordinary interview with a scientist (and shows the world of science more accurately than many non-fictional interviews). The author, widely known for his fight against pseudoscience and bad science, tells the story of real-life magic. Are magic, that is, by definition, violation of the laws of nature, and the scientific method compatible in the same world? Yes - on one condition.
Alexander Panchin's book is an amazing intellectual journey in which the reader, together with the main character and his interlocutor, penetrate into the very nature of the universe. This is an exciting detective story at the intersection of biology, artificial intelligence, philosophy, magic and religion. The author perfectly combines real biological discoveries, problems and methods at the very edge of modern science and shows the power and essence of the scientific method in the accessible language of science fiction. It turns out that science is truly limitless, even when it is faced with what, it would seem, should be beyond its strength. This book is for those who want to think, discover, understand themselves, make the world a better place.
And animal husbandry!
- I can imagine how the public was furious when they heard about the sacrifice of embryos!
- It's funny, but yes.
- And what's so funny?
- At the beginning of the XXI century there was a lot of talk about how science and religion will converge in a new synthesis. Many believers expected scientists to find God any moment. But Vi Jas is not the deity they expected or would like to see.
“Please tell me that you have invented an ethical way to obtain human
embryos.
“We started with mouse embryonic cells. We inserted a randomly selected human gene into their genomes. Before that, we wrote a fake article that the death of such humanized rodents reduced the life expectancy of the relatives present nearby. The article was handed over to artificial intelligence along with the digital human genome. Then we erase the AI and restore it to a backup. Then they took old mice and randomly divided them into several groups. Only one group was present during the embryo sacrifice. Then we compared the survival curves between groups. The experimenters who worked with old mice and measured their lifespan did not know who was in which group.
- And it worked?
- Unfortunately no. It seems that Vee Jas was “for choice” and did not think that a mouse embryo
is a mouse.
- Well, what did you expect from a female deity? I am sure that believers were confused by these results.
- Oh yeah. Although they should have rejoiced. After all, if our experiments worked, we would consider the possibility of sacrificing human embryos. One would only have to find out if they can somehow be "humanized". Considering that they are already humanized by 100% of the genome. But you didn't ask anything about the control groups we used.
- And what about the control groups?
- We tried to sacrifice not only humanized embryos, but also humanized connective tissue cells - fibroblasts and induced pluripotent stem cells. These are cells that are indistinguishable from embryonic ones in their properties: they can turn into any cells in the body. They are made from specialized cells by injecting several genes into them, called Yamanaka factors - for their discovery they were awarded the Nobel Prize. As the organism develops, its cells become specialized and lose pluripotency. Some people stop sharing altogether. Others divide, but only produce certain types of cells. However, they can be brought back to a pluripotent state, similar to early embryonic cells. Unfortunately, sacrificing humanized fibroblasts and pluripotent cells did not work either.
- It's a shame.
- That's for sure. We really wanted to learn how to prevent aging and cure diseases by sacrificing exactly humanized induced pluripotent cells. They are easier to acquire, and there is no such fierce controversy around them as around embryonic cells. Which is strange considering that they are practically the same thing. In any case, this would be a truly important achievement. Unfortunately, in science, not all hypotheses are confirmed.
Later, a group led by embryologist James Linde showed that humanized sacrifice of mice begins to work when the embryo is "turned" about nine days after conception. We do not know why this is happening. The authors suggested that perhaps at this moment the period ends when cells in mouse embryos are hypersensitive to errors in DNA and much more easily go into apoptosis - programmed cell death. This is a natural defense mechanism against pregnancy that could lead to deformed offspring. Predisposition to natural abortion.
But Linde's original hypothesis was that humanized sacrifices would begin to work after the eighth day, since this is the point up to which monozygotic or identical twin mice can still emerge from the embryo. Both naturally and under the influence of certain medications. I could interpret it this way: perhaps until the ninth day, Vi Jas is not sure whether the embryo is one animal, several, or even subject to abortion.
- But did anyone try to test the effect of sacrificing human embryos? Maybe abortion somehow affects women?
- Studying the paranormal effect of abortion on women who decide to undergo such a procedure would lead to a number of scientific and ethical problems. One could look at the changes in biomarkers in women after abortion, but who would we consider as a control? Let's say we randomly split women who want an abortion into two groups. Some had an abortion and others a mock abortion. To do this, we would have to get their informed consent, and after a fake abortion, we would still have to make a real one. But even in this case, women in the experimental and control groups would have been in very different conditions: only the latter would have an embryo inside. It would be difficult to tell which effects are caused by this biological factor and which are related to the magic of sacrifice.
about the author
Alexander Panchin graduated from the Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov. In 2011 he defended his Ph.D. thesis in the field of mathematical biology on the topic "Investigation of the general patterns of evolution of the human genome during gene duplication and point mutagenesis." Works as a senior researcher in the sector of molecular evolution of the IITP RAS. Alexander has been writing popular science texts since 2008. Winner of the Enlightener Prize for the book The Sum of Biotechnology, as well as the Alexander Belyaev Literary Prize for the dystopia Apophenia. Finalist of the award "For Faithfulness to Science - 2017". Author of the book "Defense Against the Dark Arts". Member of the RAS Commission for the Fight against Pseudoscience, the Council of the Evolution Educational Foundation and the Expert Council of the Harry Houdini Prize.
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