Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Over the following month, Chen Chen did not go anywhere and remained cooped up in the embassy reading materials and biology thesis.
From induced pluripotent stem cells to regenerative medical science, biomaterials, tissue engineering, genetic engineering, and cell engineering, Chen Chen was advancing one step at a time.
When there was no longer a restriction to the knowledge Chen Chen could have access to, he began to devour all current existing biological knowledge at a breakneck speed.
Without realizing it, it was already 31 January 2022. If Chen Chen was still in school, today would have been the end of the first half of his sophomore year.
Today also happened to be the day of a very important cultural event in China – New Year’s Eve.
At around two in the afternoon, while reading a thesis on “CRISPR/Cas9 systemic human genetics in relation to relative position”, an idea suddenly came to Chen Chen. He picked up his phone and dialed an all-too-familiar number after a momentary hesitation.
Namibia was in the UTC+2 time zone, which was six hours away from Mainland China. It was around eight o’clock at night back in Mainland China.
“Hey, Little Chen, how did you find the time to call your mom?”
The voice of Chen Chen’s mother came out from the other end, “Don’t worry, your mom and dad are doing fine. Your dad bought a villa following your recommendation, it’s still being renovated now.
“Once you get married in the future, you won’t have to move out. I can spend time with my grandchild that way...
“Anyway, your dad is still the same as he’s always been, always so stingy with relatives... Let’s not talk about it, makes me angry when I think about it!
“Speaking of which, Little Chen. When are you coming back? I haven’t seen you in a whole year ever since last year’s New Year. Don’t just invest all your time on your work, find some time to come back now and then, bring a girlfriend back too, eh?”
Listening to his mother nagging on and on, Chen Chen answered sheepishly to her remarks. The conversation went on this way for half an hour before it ended.
There was still a remnant of a smile in Chen Chen’s eyes after he had ended the call. He got some shuteye after that.
When he opened his eyes again, the trace of smile was completely drowned in his pitch-black pupils.
The farther away he was from home, the more he longed for the charm of being at home. It was for this reason that Chen Chen wanted to preserve this charm forever.
“Mankind anti-aging project...”
Chen Chen mumbled to himself. This project was something he began drafting with ever since acquiring the USB drive. It was the ultimate endeavor to forcefully extend the human lifespan by all means necessary.
The reason for Chen Chen’s unwavering commitment to see this project through was for the sake of his parents. He did not intend to continue living on all by himself. He had hoped that his parents would be there with him on this journey of life.
His parents must have felt the same way as well. They also had loved ones in their lifetime that they held dear to and certainly hoped could continue to be with them.
This was how Chen Chen’s plan directed on the entirety of mankind came to be.
The first step to achieving immortality was to break the boundaries of the Hayflick limit to achieve longevity of the human lifespan. Only after acquiring the technique to longevity could one hope to pursue the elusive fable known as immortality.
It could even be said that everything Chen Chen did up till this point was to help him set to stage to carry out his project.
One of the components Chen Chen required for his project was a technique referred to as embryonic stem cell cloning. This was a technique that the entire world was striving to develop.
In contrast to the human cloning technique which faced countless scrutiny on an international scale, simple cloning of human embryo was not met with the same treatment. As far as most scientists were concerned, the brain of an embryo was hardly developed, if at all. It was just a sack of meat.
Just like how getting an abortion before fourteen weeks was considered not be a big issue. Passing the fourteen weeks period, it would be considered taboo to get an abortion.
The fourteenth week was considered the critical point where the fetal brain began rapid development. From this point onward, it was considered a human.
Whether the cloning of human embryos was considered taboo or not had been a subject of controversy in the medical world for some time.
The way Chen Chen saw it, it was a small price to pay for a further breakthrough in medical science. It would lead to curing more sickness and alleviating more people of their pain and suffering.
Simply put, medical development would always be a double-edged sword. Questions of morality and ethics would constantly be a part of the conversation when it came to such techniques. Without the factor of morality and ethics, the medical industry would spiral downward into an abyss of destruction.
However, when the bar of morality and ethics was set too high, the technological progression was hindered as well.
Chen Chen held onto his belief that the obstacles in this path would not hinder progression as the advancement of human technology had always been associated with countless obstacles and barriers.
It was a parallel of the relationship between environmental protection and development. Everyone knew that humanity wanted to preserve and protect the earth and its environment. They tend to forget the real motive behind doing so was to protect themselves. If the earth and its environment were destroyed, humanity would cease to exist as well.
However, limiting the advancement of technology for the sake of protecting the environment was like putting the cart before the horse.
Some sort of balance had to be achieved to maintain the trend of upward progression.