Humans Are Tiny, Yet Grand

A human cell contained 46 DNA molecules. If you stretched them out and joined them end to end, they would be more than two meters long.

An adult body contained 60 trillion cells. If you connected all the DNA in those 60 trillion cells into a single strand, it would stretch 120 billion kilometers—800 times the distance from Earth to the Sun, which was 150 million kilometers.

With a DNA strand that long, who could guarantee that not a single link in the chain would go wrong?

Humans were tiny, yet grand.

Science was cruel, yet merciful.

Han Meng agreed with Shen Qi's calculations. He knew he would die sooner or later.

"I don't want to die, but I'm not afraid of death. If necessary, I'll have to die."

Han Meng had a clear-eyed view of death. He continued, "But even a life that lasts only a moment is still a life. While I'm still alive, I'm willing to devote myself to science and become a sacrifice for it. If our research group has enough funding, could I apply to have my disease-causing genes modified?"

Shen Qi shook his head. "Our research group was given 11 million for the first phase of the project, and we've already spent more than five million. The money left clearly isn't enough to support gene modification for you. You know this too, Han Meng: precisely editing and modifying genes is extremely expensive. And after calculating the coverage required to change all your disease-causing genes into healthy ones, it comes to 57.8%. In other words, more than half your genes need to be modified. The five million or so we have left wouldn't even buy us a single microrobot."

"Yes, I understand." Han Meng nodded. "I was only asking. After all, modifying my genes isn't