Chapter 203: Laboratory Seven (1)

“You want to do the project in all of Guangdong?” the minister asked, confused

“Yes. For a project like this, we have to do it based on the climate, terrain, the population, and the population density. Even if we do a pilot test in two islands and it works, we have to optimize it again if we want to do it in Guangdong. And if we don’t do that, there’s no point in doing it there in the first place. Plue, that island is already deserted, so there’s no need to get rid of mosquitoes there.”

“...”

Well, Young-Joon had a point. But the problem was whether they should be tampering with the ecosystem on such a large scale when they were just beginning, especially in an important economic hub like Guangdong.

“The governor of Guangdong might be against it,” the minister said.

“Then we have to convince them. Please help me,” Young-Joon said.

“... Alright. The meeting with the governor is in two days in the afternoon, so I’ll think about it. Please prepare some data as well,” the minister said.

But before Young-Joon met the governor, he met a guest at the hotel on the morning of the meeting.

“Nice to meet you.”

A sharp-looking man in a neat suit held out his business card and introduced himself.

“My name is Anthony, editor of

Nature.

”

Young-Joon shook his hand.

“Nice to meet you.”

“It’s really difficult to see you, Doctor Ryu. I’m here to interview you about the genetically modified baby.”

“Sure, since I requested it first.”

Young-Joon had asked his secretary’s office to contact

Nature

and

Science

as he wanted to do an interview on the treatment of the genetically modified baby. When he asked, Samuel, the chief editor of

Science

, had picked up the phone himself.

“I’ve reserved a small room over there, so should we do it there?” Anthony asked.

“Sure.”

As Young-Joon was about to walk towards the room...

Bang!

The front door of the hotel burst open, and a woman with disheveled hair rushed in.

“Mr. Ryu!”

She quickly found Young-Joon and walked over. It was Jessie, the editor of

Science

.

“Phew... I barely caught up with you. You asked us for an interview, right?”

“Yes. The editor from

Nature

is here as well, so should we do it together?”

“Thank you.”

Jessie let out a sigh of relief that she didn’t miss him.

Young-Joon and the two editors went to the small conference room.

“I could have gathered a bunch of reporters and made a big deal out of it, but I only asked the two academic journals because I didn’t want it to be politicized,” Young-Joon said. “But at the same time, I want it to be known by the public.

Nature

and

Science

are the two greatest journals that have captured both the professionalism and popularity of science, and that’s why I wanted to do an interview with you.”

“We’re honored,” Anthony said.

“This interview will not just be about the genetically modified baby. Today, I’m going to talk about the future of A-GenBio along with the mosquito extinction project.”

* * *

At a gas station that was located just before the Hannam Bridge...

“Could I get a full tank?” Park Dong-Hyun asked the gas station employee.

“Babe, isn’t it time for us to change cars? The kids are getting pretty big, too,” asked Park Dong-Hyun’s wife.

“I want to, but we can’t afford it now after the monthly mortgage payment on our apartment. Let’s keep this one for a few more years.”

“Can’t you just sell your company stocks? You said it’s really high now, right? If you sell that, we could pay off our mortgage and get a new car.”

“No! It’s the price of an apartment right now, but it could be worth an entire building in a few years,” Park Dong-Hyun said, shocked.

“You never know.”

His wife pouted.

“One hundred percent. Look at what our CEO is doing. In ten years, he’s going to be moving people to Mars.”

“Let’s buy it when you get your bonus.”

A-Bio has thrown a huge bonus party in the first half of its first year. It was a small company at the time and only had a few employees, but it had made a lot of money. Young-Joon gave everyone 1.5 times their annual sa;ary as a bonus.

“I haven’t seen that kind of money since you went to the Life Creation Department,” said his wife.

She chuckled as she thought back to Park Dong-Hyun’s demotion to the LIfe Creation Department.

“Haha, good things will happen if you lead a good life.”

Park Dong-Hyun was exiled to the Life Creation Department because he refused to go to strip clubs for company dinners. He was confronted by his department people, saying that he was pretending to be righteous and made them look like the bad guys.

It was Park Dong-Hyun’s mistake to angrily challenge them. After a big fight, Park Dong-Hyun was disciplined and transferred to the Life Creation Department. He never got promoted and didn’t make much money after that, but his wife never complained. She was actually proud of him. Even when he said he was going to a small venture company called A-Bio, she listened to his explanation and supported him.

‘Still, it must have been quite an anxious and difficult time.’

Park Dong-Hyun’s wife just didn’t say anything because she was worried it would hurt his pride.

The faded purse his wife was carrying caught his eye. Even when he first made a lot of money at A-Bio, she was defensive about buying her own clothes and bags. But now, she wanted to get a new car all of a sudden.

“We’re going to use the car for the kids, and you also have to use it for going to work,” his wife said.

“...”

Park Dong-Hyun suddenly felt a surge of gratitude for his wife.

“I’ll get a big bonus for the second half of last year. Let’s buy it when I get it,” Park Dong-Hyun said.

“But there wasn’t anything big that happened then, right? And it’s also the new year.” his wife asked.

“The payment was delayed by two months because we were in the process of merging the company. We decided to settle the payments after the merger was over,” Park Dong-Hyun explained. “When we get that, let’s get a new car, and some new clothes and purses for you.”

“Hm...”

She stared at the side of his face.

“I’ll buy you an expensive one.”

“Are you getting a lot?” she asked.

“The Life Creation Team is a founding member of A-GenBio. The other scientists have done a lot as well, but we’re pretty special since we made a lot of progress in developing artificial organs and organoids.”

“I hope you get a lot.”

‘I heard about it from Doctor Chun, so I have an idea of the amount, but I’m sure it’s far beyond your imagination.’

However, Park Dong-Hyun stayed silent and swallowed his words.

Meanwhile, Young-Joon’s interview with

Nature

and

Science

was on the radio.

—Reconstructing targeted genes in lymph nodes and bone marrow using Cas9 showed us that we have the potential to treat genetic diseases that occur after embryogenesis.

—Although, we can only target genetic diseases related to immunity for now because there are a whopping thirty-seven trillion cells in the human body. If we expand the target to organs related to specific diseases, we’ll definitely be able to treat other types of diseases.

“Doctor Ryu is amazing. I don’t know much about biology or medicine, but I can tell he’s a great person,” said Park Dong-Hyun’s wife.

“Yeah. That’s why I’m going to stay stuck to him,” said Park Joo-Hyuk, chuckling.

“He can move forward because he has someone like you to support him,” she said as she squeezed his hand.

They looked outside the window at the pile of filters on one side of the gas station. The gas station had collected them, filled with micro-dust. The filters were stamped with the AB7 logo, which stood for A-GenBio Laboratory Seven.

“Would you like to change your filter?” asked the employee who was done refueling his car.

“Yes, thank you,” Park Dong-Hyun replied.

It took about a minute to change the filter. Some gas stations, but not this one, had a separate employee who only changed the filter during refueling.

It had been four days since the running micro-dust reduction project began. Thanks to the government’s active promotion, seventy percent of the sedans in Seoul were equipped with the filter. Additionally, the concentration of micro-dust in the air had already decreased by thirty percent; the risk level of micro-dust, which was at dangerous levels four days ago, had gone down to moderate levels.

Cellijenner set up a filter refining facility in the factory they bought in advance and hired a lot of employees. However, they couldn’t keep up with the manpower required to collect the filters and refine it into fertilizer. Contracts had already been signed to export the filters to China, India, and Russia. They also ended up building several more factories.

The Ministry of Environment was quick to use the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy’s policy, stating that they would always keep the concentration of micro-dust in the air below ten micrograms per cubic meter. Honestly, the ministries weren’t really doing anything; it was happening because of what Cellijenner was doing. And the man who made it happen was Young-Joon.

“The airport is going to be chaotic when he gets back,” said Park Dong-Hyun’s wife. “But why isn’t Mr. Ryu coming back yet? I thought he declared the moratorium and he’s done treating the genetically modified baby.”

“Because A-GenBio is no longer just a pharmaceutical company.”

He had an idea of what Young-Joon was trying to do in China right now.

“I’m never going to sell the shares I have,” he said.

—...As such, A-GenBio is planning to build a seventh lab.

Young-Joon’s interview was still playing on the radio.

* * *

“Even though I put the brakes on the genetic modification of embryos through this moratorium, the ultimate goal is to further advance science,” Young-Joon said.

“To further advance science?”

“Stem cell technology and genetic modification are both closely tied to bioethics, and there will continue to be friction in the future. If there are more people like Doctor He Jiankui who misuse science in this situation, the scientific community will face more resistance.”

“What kind of resistance?”

“Let’s say, for example, that biology reaches an extreme level of advancement and becomes capable of performing a procedure for eternal life. Considering A-GenBio’s potential, it’s not a far-fetched assumption,” Young-Joon said. “However, as with any new technology in the world, the unit price is bound to be high when it first appears. That price difference could transform the economic class divide that exists in capitalist societies into a biological one, where longevity or youthfulness becomes a class that divides human status.”

The two editors looked surprised.

Young-Joon added, “It may become a class society that is much more direct, powerful, and dangerous than capitalism. Stem cells and Cas9 have brought that fantasy future relatively within reach. If we go past that technological singularity without enough preparation, people who reject that world will resist.”

“Something like that may definitely happen.”

“I am a scientist, and I am a believer in scientism. I think the advancement of science is always good. That is why we put a lot of ethical brakes on our research to prevent something like that from happening. Because A-GenBio will continue to research both items more deeply in the future, we mustn’t make any more cases like He Jiankui.”

After the interview, Young-Joon finally met Yang Gunyu, the governor of Guangdong Province. However, he quickly dismissed Young-Joon’s project.

“You cannot eradicate mosquitoes in all of Guangdong. Approving the experiment in our two islands was the best we could do, so do your research there.”

It was a stubborn and firm response. Surprised, the health minister quickly intervened.

“H–Hey, Governor Yang. You know how lucky we are to have Doctor Ryu do this project himself...”

“Does Doctor Ryu know about the Great Leap Forward?” the governor asked.

“The Great Leap Forward?”

As Young-Joon tilted his head, puzzled, the governor smiled.

“You probably don’t know because you’re young. In the 1950’s, China implemented a variety of government policies to advance the country. One of the policies was the Four Pests campaign, which was to eradicate harmful insects. It was a good idea as it could improve sanitation and living conditions,” Yang Gunyu said. “The problem was that one of the targets for extermination was sparrows. They were harmful, and they were the farmers’ enemy because they ate a significant amount of crops. However, when two hundred million sparrows were killed in a year, locusts dominated and ended up eating all the crops.”

“...”

“Because of the lack of food, forty million people starved to death. That’s comparable to the population of South Korea right now.”

“Forty million...”

“The environment, the ecosystem, is not something to be tampered with, Doctor Ryu. No matter how much of a genius you are, as long as you’re human, you can’t keep up with the will of the heavens or nature.”

Young-Joon rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache.

‘It’s not like I can tell him that there’s someone here who’s not human...’