The three top scorers nervously looked at the two teachers.
The two teachers were clearly dumbfounded.
"This..." Xi Yanfan frowned, her expression complicated. "That definitely won't work!"
"No." Antonio shook his head as well. "It's a bold and wild idea, but it really doesn't sound practical."
The three top scorers immediately grew dejected.
"Archaea and bacteria can't fuse. They may look similar, but they're completely different things, with enormous differences between them." Xi Yanfan patiently explained.
"I'm not very familiar with archaea, but I do know a little about them." Antonio nodded in agreement. "For a long time, biologists thought bacteria and archaea were more or less the same. Later, Carl compared the ribosomes in bacteria and archaea and discovered that their ribosomes were worlds apart."
"The genes and proteins of bacteria and archaea are completely different. Bacterial cell walls contain peptidoglycan, while archaea have none. Bacterial cell membranes are made of bilayer phospholipids, while archaeal membranes are made of ether lipids. Bacteria commonly use lysozyme, whereas archaea use polysaccharide proteases."
"In short, on the genetic and biochemical levels, the difference between bacteria and archaea is as enormous as the difference between bacteria and humans!"
"So can they fuse? They can't fuse." Antonio shook his head. "Give it up, kids."
"But... weren't eukaryotes formed from the fusion of bacteria and archaea?" Lu Geng refused to give up.
"It's hard to say." Antonio shook his head. "The origins of eukaryotes are shrouded in too many mysteries, and besides... Song He!"
Antonio suddenly waved.
The three children turned around and saw Song He strolling into the laboratory.
The atmosphere in the entire laboratory immediately changed. Quite a few students in the distance looked resentful and timid; they were all unlucky victims who had been caught faking papers two days earlier.
"What are