At Lü Yongchang's shout, Mao Zhengzhi's expression shifted slightly. He immediately stopped what he was doing and looked back at the computer screen.
"Look!"
Lü Yongchang pointed at several of the slightly larger cells. "Look closely. They're slowly growing in size!"
Mao Zhengzhi hurriedly focused his attention on those cells.
Time ticked by.
The cells gradually grew larger.
The cell showing the most obvious change had actually doubled in size, filling a fifth of the space within its cell wall.
"These fungi are still alive..." Mao Zhengzhi swallowed. "Unbelievable..."
That was Mars!
Even in such a hostile environment, these fungi had managed to remain viable!
Lü Yongchang's gaze flickered, and he turned to the researcher beside him. "Please help me determine the age of these fungal samples."
Mao Zhengzhi froze for a moment at those words, but quickly caught on.
He raised his eyebrows and said quietly, "You suspect these fungi have been alive for a long time?"
Lü Yongchang nodded slightly. "That's right. I suspect... starvation reduced these cells to their current state."
"Starved down to this..." Mao Zhengzhi thoughtfully watched the cells continually "swelling" under the microscope. "That's certainly possible."
"But the smallest cells seem to have lost their viability."
Lü Yongchang shrugged. "Maybe they starved to death."
"In any case, let's wait for the test results before drawing any conclusions."
While they waited, Lü Yongchang silently watched the fungal cells on the monitor.
By now, some of the cells had swollen to fill half the space within their cell walls, while the smallest cells showed no change at all.
"They seem to be reaching their limit." Lü Yongchang's gaze flickered. "Their recovery is slowing down."
"Next... let's examine these cells with an electron microscope!"
As Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi collected fresh samples and prepared them