It Was Time to Get to Work

Fan Tao: "Lou Jinghui successfully applied for a Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope. He worked haphazardly on all sorts of things and produced a lot of images, but we unanimously agreed that he was still far from publishing in a top journal. At most, he could publish a few SCI papers."

Fan Tao: "Lou Jinghui came from a mathematics background, after all. He was a biology monk who had entered the field halfway through, and this was his first time independently handling cutting-edge biological experiments. He was like a headless fly."

Song He smiled. He wasn't surprised.

Lou Jinghui's mathematical ability was extremely strong, but he was still practically a beginner in biology and needed time to grow.

Once he could perfectly combine mathematical biology with mathematics, he might have a chance to ascend to immortality on the spot and produce earth-shaking results. For now, though, he was still slowly cultivating.

Fan Tao: "Ji Tianhe's team used Autistic Mice to study the hippocampus, and they did achieve some results, but they haven't formed any systematic conclusions yet. MIT BCS has already published research in almost the exact same direction, with more detailed data and more meticulous conclusions. It's practically perfect."

Fan Tao: "Ji Tianhe searched for a long time but couldn't even find a direction that could be extended or supplemented. He was so furious that he slept in the dormitory for two whole days and nights. He came to the laboratory today, but he's just sitting there in a daze."

Song He secretly clicked his tongue.

Ji Tianhe's team was absolutely formidable. After all, Tan Xi had been whipping them mercilessly with a little leather whip for so many years. The process had been painful, but their progress had been genuine.

Unfortunately, they had been terribly unlucky this time. The research direction they had chosen had collided with someone else's. That alone would have been bad enough, but the other side was ahead of them—and it was MIT BCS at that. There was simply nothing they could do.

What was MIT BCS? It was the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, which housed the famous McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

There were only four McGovern Institutes for Brain Research in the world at present, located in MIT, Tsinghua and Peking Universities, and Beijing Normal University. Song He had read a pile of their published Brain Science papers. They really had something, and at the very least, Ji Tianhe's team couldn't compare with them yet.

Fan Tao: "Professor Lu Chengen's situation is a case of flooding the Dragon King's temple."

Song He: "What do you mean?"

Fan Tao: "He wanted to use the Short Sleep Pill for research, but Chenghuang Company's research and development team started working at the same time and completed all the research he wanted to do at lightning speed. They published quite a few papers in top journals and major sub-journals. Professor Lu is very helpless."

Song He couldn't hold back his laughter. It really was friendly fire.

Thinking about it, the situation was rather subtle. The technical backbone of Chenghuang Company's research and development team had originally been transferred out of Tan Xi's team. Almost everyone who hadn't followed Ji Tianhe had ended up settling at Chenghuang Company.

And now? Ji Tianhe's team had hit a wall, while Chenghuang's team was surging ahead!

Fan Tao: "In short, it's a complete defeat! Our team has been calling for you desperately. Everyone is looking forward to your return!"

Song He: "Forget it. I can't return in the short term."

Fan Tao: "Don't! Come back, come back! Everyone misses you. The laboratory can't go a day without its leader!"

Song He: "At most, I can assign you a research direction and give you some clues."

Fan Tao: "That works, that works! Tell me!"

He recalled the contents of the Black Technology Blueprint fragment he had just seen and typed out a long message:

"Last year at Jinghai University, we used a lot of Engineered Bacteria modified from E. coli, right?"

"Do you remember my development process at the time? By placing them in an appropriate extreme environment, we induced the Engineered Bacteria to undergo mutation and evolution. The advantageous strains replaced the inferior ones, gradually covering the entire population and forming a new generation of Engineered Bacteria!"

"What did this process suggest? Perhaps bacteria can gather and store information from their surrounding environment! What similar research has the academic community been able to verify so far? The coordinated movement of bacteria on solid surfaces improves their reproductive performance!"

"So I suggest that you conduct experiments related to bacterial memory and explore the pattern by which memory is produced—and whether it can persist for several generations."

Fan Tao: "Can it really work?"

Song He: "It can. Just listen to me. I also have a strong premonition that the strength of bacterial memory is related to iron."

Fan Tao: "Iron?"

Song He: "That's right. Start by studying the effect of iron on bacterial memory and see whether you can produce some results."

Fan Tao: "Boss, why are you so certain that it's related to iron? Did you observe something in your previous experiments?"

Song He: "A deduction born of wisdom! Bacteria with low iron content are good at reproducing in groups, while bacteria with high iron content are good at forming Biofilm. The bacteria covered in the mucus of a Biofilm cluster together to resist Antibiotics. That's one reason!"

Song He: "Before the Great Oxidation Event occurred on Earth, many ancient types of bacteria relied on iron to perform functions similar to those of oxygen. Evolution must have left behind some traces. That's the second reason!"

Song He: "What you need to do is the Single-Cell Swarm Experiment. I won't go into the specific procedures. Figure them out yourselves."

Fan Tao: "All right, we'll give it a try!"

Song He contentedly put down his phone. Having a Scientific Research Team was great. He no longer needed to personally study the Black Technology Blueprint fragments; he could leave the work to his subordinates.

With the clues provided by the Black Technology Blueprint fragments, it was only a matter of time before the research results emerged. If nothing went wrong, the team would soon complete a top-journal study!

Independently completing this kind of research could polish the team's coordination, build their confidence, and awaken their loyalty and dependence on their leader. After all, Song He had provided the research direction.

Everyone won! Everyone won!

Song He tapped the keyboard, waking the Screen Saver computer, opened the City Road Network Generator, and continued working.

During the long flight, he focused entirely on working at the computer, with the stamina of an iron man.

On the one hand, young people were naturally strong. On the other, he was also a veteran researcher. He had fought countless high-intensity research battles, and his stamina had been trained to some extent.

As the scale of the road network continued to expand, upgrade notifications appeared from time to time.

Mathematics Progress detected. Rising from Platinum Level 83 to Platinum Level 84!

Mathematics Progress detected. Rising from Platinum Level 84 to Platinum Level 85!

By the time he could look down at Yemo City from the airplane window, the computer in front of him was hot as a blazing coal.

The Road Network had expanded to 6,900 intersections!

His mathematics level had settled at Level 86. He was still fourteen levels away from advancing his rank. At this rate, it wouldn't take much longer.

It was easy to imagine that advancing from Platinum Rank to Grandmaster Rank would probably require him to undergo an extremely painful tribulation!

His phone vibrated softly on the little table.

An Yulong: "You're almost back, right?"

Song He hurriedly replied, "The plane has just arrived in Yemo City. We'll be landing soon!"

An Yulong: "Come to my office in an hour. It's time to get to work."

"Understood!" Song He replied crisply.

An hour later.

Song He stood outside the office with his computer bag on his back. He knocked carefully, and only after hearing a voice from inside say, "Come in," did he push open the door.

He hadn't been here for several days, and his teacher's office was even more chaotic. It had practically become a library, with mountains of books and materials piled up everywhere, white and yellow papers stacked into towering ranges.

If they released a few paper-eating termites inside, they could probably multiply into a million in no time and raise an entire termite empire.

An Yulong was still dressed in padded pants and a padded jacket. His expressionless goateed face radiated the aura of a powerful man as he sat steadily beside the desk, bent over his work.

On one side of the desk stood another dark figure. It was none other than Ye Qian, who was waiting silently and nervously.

What about Ye Jin? Oh, he had failed to pass the examination and secure a position earlier, so he wasn't qualified to come at this point.

"Did you two bring your computers?" An Yulong set aside the work in his hands.

"We did!" Song He and Ye Qian replied in unison.

"Take them out. Let me see your current level and how many intersections you can manage at most," An Yulong said. "Song He has been busy these past two days, so he's definitely fallen behind a little. Ye Qian, you demonstrate first!"