The 21st Century Is the Century of Biology!

2022.

On the campus of USTC.

West District AED.

On the exterior of the building, the three characters 'Library', inscribed by Mr. Qi Gong, shone brilliantly in the sun, radiating the resilience and vitality that had been integrated into the very blood of every USTC student.

Meanwhile, inside the library.

A young man sat alone in a deserted corner, writing furiously:

"As everyone knows."

"The 21st century is the century of biology."

"Around the year 2000, this slogan unknowingly became popular. Computers were also very hot back then, but everyone knows that Nasdaq crashed around that time, the internet bubble burst, and biology took on an important historical mission."

"For a group of high school students, this meant that biology became the major with the highest admission scores in various schools, usually ranking first or second."

"Even in the popular transfer major rankings during sophomore year, biology was ranked first."

"At the time, students in our major jokingly said that we had given up the chance to get into Tsinghua and Peking University to embrace the future of the 21st century."

"Who would have thought that after more than a decade, 'The 21st century is the century of biology' has become a shared joke among us biology majors—the joke isn't about the slogan itself, but about us, the biology majors."

"In today's terms, 'This is a sad story'."

The young man paused, as if sensing something, and picked up his phone, turning on the screen.

However, there were no new messages on his phone.

The corners of the young man's mouth twitched, and he lowered his head to continue writing:

"Actually, in my opinion, the statement 'The 21st century is the century of biology' is increasingly likely to become a reality.

The development trend of the biology industry is gradually becoming clear. With the advancement of technology, many fields in biology may achieve breakthroughs in the future.

Excellent talents in the industry will naturally reap both fame and fortune—there are good examples around me. A senior graduate from a top ten university with a Ph.D. is now the CTO of a domestic gene sequencing startup, earning millions annually. If the company goes public, his net worth could exceed 100 million.

In the past decade, how much have technologies like computers, physics, and automation been applied to biological sciences, not just advancing, but leaping forward?

If nothing else, look at the diagnostic equipment in hospitals. Compared to ten years ago, how much has it improved?

Ten years ago, biological sequencing was an extremely expensive project that could yield major papers.

And now?

Even decent hospitals can do it.

Another example: ten years ago, gene localization was also a major project, time-consuming and labor-intensive. Now, its cost has dropped to a point where even aspiring authors can afford it.

Ten years ago, a saying circulated in the biology community:

Biologists spend all day doing experiments and analyzing data, while computer scientists and mathematicians analyze and interpret the data.

But now?

A Ph.D. graduate from the biology department who only knows how to do experiments and doesn't know a few programming languages or R wouldn't dare to greet people.

Now, 30 years later, outsiders' understanding of life sciences is still stuck on flowers and plants, farming and fertilizing, chickens, ducks, fish, and meat, traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis, surgery and injections, shooting guns and running PCR... still stuck on the idea that jobs are hard to find and no one wants graduates.

Little do they know, life sciences are no longer what they used to be.

For example, big data, which became popular around 2012, was driven by the leap in sequencing technology that life sciences started in 2008.

Furthermore, AI, machine learning, genetic algorithms—which of these were not brought about by life sciences?

I started learning big data analysis at the USTC gifted young class and began to come into contact with AI and machine learning in 2011. These were all learned within the professional courses of the life sciences major.

And when did these concepts become popular? At least three years later!

As he wrote.

The young man's emotions gradually became stirred, and his handwriting deepened involuntarily:

"Currently, the biggest problem in the entire biological field is the intense competition.

It's like a lottery; no intelligence is required, anyone can participate, only money and labor are needed, so everyone competes fiercely.

Everyone knows only a few possible winning numbers, so it's common for multiple research groups to try to draw the same number.

Whoever draws first gains the advantage, and then it becomes a race against time. Students work until 11 PM, with no rest on weekends;

Students send results to their supervisors, who wake up in the middle of the night to review and submit.

They would rather send their hard-earned lottery numbers to low-tier journals than be a step behind their rivals.

As a result, renowned professors and researchers with extensive publications engage in fierce, undignified disputes over the order of winning the lottery."

As he wrote, the young man suddenly came to his senses:

This was material for his doctoral defense. The latter part clearly could not appear in such an occasion.

So he shook his head and drew a long horizontal line through the text in the center of the page.

At the same time, the sound of a chair hitting a desk suddenly came from a desk not far from the young man.

His train of thought broken, the young man subconsciously looked up.

He discovered it was a couple who had finished their studies. Cough cough, the sounds of a young couple leaving their seats.

The young man suddenly thought of his paper wife. Tonight, should he go see Tifa or Alice?

Then he came back to his senses, gently shook his head, and continued writing:

"Of course, as of now, the field of biology is still some distance away from a standard explosion."

"What conditions are necessary for a subject to explode like computers did?"

"I believe there are three prerequisites:

1. Low-cost development. 2. High fault tolerance, allowing developers to quickly launch projects and iterate. 3. A 2C business model."

"And regrettably, the biological industry currently does not meet these conditions.

"For example, genetically modified crops require extremely high R&D costs—similar to Monsanto's giant screening machines—and have low fault tolerance; a single pollen grain drifting away can cause major issues."

"Another example is new drug development, which has high costs and absurdly low fault tolerance. The FDA, due to various internal and external reasons, has strict requirements."

"This leads to biological startups being highly dependent on resources and progressing slowly, making it difficult to achieve an explosion."

After writing these, the young man took a deep breath and summarized:

"But I believe these hurdles will eventually be overcome!"

"I can confidently say that the 21st century will still be the century of biology!"

"This is the pursuit of countless pioneers in the biological sciences, and it is also my lifelong dream!"

"Presenter: Xu Yun."

After finishing these words, the young man stretched leisurely.

He carefully capped his fountain pen and gathered his documents.

Finally, he checked his surroundings one last time.

Finding nothing left behind, the young man, carrying his belongings, walked out of the West Library.

Back in the small apartment he rented off-campus, the young man took off his glasses and lay back on the bed in a sprawled position.

He stared at the ceiling aimlessly.

After a while, he shook his head helplessly, a bitter smile tugging at the corner of his lips:

"Damn, if I didn't have a cheat, who the hell would study biology?"

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