PLUMBING PROBLEMS: PART XIII
PLUMBING PROBLEMS: PART XIII
The beginning of the lab book dealt with his theories, the purpose of his research. His interest was in natural products, but he wasn’t interested in the usual source that was exploited, plant life; he was interested in the natural peptides found in marine life. His work took yet another turn. Once a molecule was discovered in a plant demonstrating its promise in fighting a disease, chemists would take over and refine the molecule, increasing its potency until they had a drug. Worthy’s method was quite different. When he found a peptide in an animal that he felt he could improve upon, he searched for another animal that produced a similar peptide that would complement the actions of the first. The product, he hoped, would be more potent than the sum of the two individual peptides. He would isolate the DNA from the two animals, then cut and splice the DNA, inject the DNA into a DNA depleted sea urchin egg and await the results. If he met with any success, the result would be an animal the likes of which the world had never seen. He would also make an insert that would allow the animal to have an increased response to growth hormone – the bigger the animal the more the peptide to harvest. Worthy then created the correct environment for the cells to start multiplying. Soon an embryo was formed, and then the animal itself.
Along with his notes were Polaroid photos of the resulting animals. One experiment combining two creatures of interest was the union of the genes of a hammerhead shark and a catfish found in Florida.
Hammerhead shark, I thought to myself. I recalled the description of the fish Jack had found. “Had a head shaped like a pipe,” he said. A hammerhead shark, in an advanced state of decomposition, with its body twisted might look like an animal with a head shaped like a pipe. One aspect of this combination really frightened me, and that was the curious properties of the catfish part of this animal. This catfish was able, when the water in which it lived began drying up, to walk short distances using its fins. I recalled when ‘JAWS’ was first published and then made into a movie; people thought the ocean wasn’t safe. If this critter got loose, not only would the water not be safe, but the shore as well. I continued to read the lab book and look at the pictures of bizarre animals. Many entries finished with the comment – results unsatisfactory, experiment terminated.
