Chapter 2300 - 1484: We Need Some Time Alone

Chapter 2300: Chapter 1484: We Need Some Time Alone

After many more days, at nine in the morning, Tang Shun sent the latest global opinion brief to his email. Yang Ping opened the file and saw the title was "Summary of Week Two Media Trends," and the text was divided into four sections: Academic Circle Reaction, Industry Dynamics, Civil Movements, Media Narratives.

The academic circle part made him feel a heavy exhaustion.

The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) released an official statement, cautious in tone but clear in wording: "Professor Yang Ping’s preliminary evidence regarding the safety window of receptor X is worth serious consideration, but the current data is insufficient to support any conclusions on human applications. We urge all parties to exercise restraint until data is complete." Yang Ping interpreted this statement as an implicit stance. EMBO did not criticize him, nor did they support him; it simply reiterated the basic principles of the scientific community, and this reiteration itself, in the current environment, amounted to mild opposition.

What made him more uneasy was the reaction from his peers. He browsed through several open letters quoted in the brief, one of which was signed by thirty-seven biologists, titled "Advocacy for the Open Exploration of Receptor X Research." The letter stated: "Scientific discoveries belong to all humanity; no single laboratory should monopolize the exploration of receptor X’s regulatory approach. We call on Professor Yang Ping’s team to disclose original data so that the global scientific community can jointly assess the safety boundaries." After reading, Yang Ping read it again. He understood the underlying message behind the letter: someone suspected him of withholding data. Not because he was dishonest, but because his silence had lasted too long. In the public’s eyes, silence equated to conservatism. In the eyes of his peers, silence was a barrier.

The industry dynamics part was worse than he expected. The California Biotechnology Company announced that they had completed all verifications in the in vitro stage and officially entered primate model testing. The press release included a photo: three macaques in a cage, with a label on the cage reading "Receptor X Activation Group." The caption below the photo stated, "The first batch of non-human primate subjects has undergone intervention, and longevity-related indicators will be observed over the next six months." Yang Ping stared at the photo for a long time. The eyes of the three macaques were clear and tranquil; they did not know what they were being used to prove.

In the civil movements section, the brief used a subtitle—"Global Dissemination and Localization." He saw a word he didn’t recognize, "Sphragis," annotated as "Greek, meaning ’seal,’ now used as a self-identification by underground communities in multiple countries." According to the brief’s data, at least twelve countries have offline groups named "Sphragis," characterized by meeting once a week, collective meditation to "perceive the seal within the body," and injecting each other with an "Energy Activator" at the end of each gathering. The brief added a note after "Energy Activator": "Preliminary analysis shows that the composition of the substance is unknown, suspected to be an unverified mixture of small molecules."

Yang Ping closed the brief and opened a new blank document. The cursor blinked at the top left corner of the screen. He had been outlining the framework of the statement for several days, but each time he truly put his hands on the keyboard, he would stop. Because he was hesitating. Not hesitating whether to speak out; he had already decided to speak out. He hesitated over whether to open the door with the key he held, not knowing what lay behind, or to hide the key first.

This metaphor lingered in his mind for a long time. The key is his understanding of receptor X, the door is the complete scheme for activating receptor X. He could open that door; technically speaking, he knew he could establish a complete receptor X regulation system within a year. He could do it. But he didn’t know what was behind the door. It could be a longer healthy lifespan, a fundamental intervention in aging mechanisms, or a completely uncontrollable, false "extension" at the cost of cellular canceration. He tended to believe the latter had a greater probability.

Because his data was pointing in that direction, but he couldn’t be one hundred percent sure as his experiments were not yet completed. Also, the repair mechanism of the human body’s sealed systems certainly couldn’t be regulated by a single receptor X; receptor X is just a small part or local factor.

But no matter how small or local, it meant a beginning.

If he were a pure scientist, he would say, "I’ll make judgments when I finish the experiments." But he was no longer a pure scientist. He had become a person standing in front of the door, with millions of people behind him urging him to open it. They urged him with slogans, with investments, with tags on social media. They didn’t care what was behind the door; they only cared about whether the door could be opened.

He closed the blank document.

The first batch of fine gradient experiment results came out, 11.25% group.

Yang Ping, Tang Shun, and Weber stood in front of the microscope, looking at the cells on the screen. At 11.25% activation intensity, cell morphology was normal, no multilayer stacking, no rounding, no floating. Metabolic group data synchronously showed that none of the three hundred and twenty metabolites exhibited significant deviations. Epigenetic data also showed stable genome-wide methylation levels, and the three gene clusters that showed significant demethylation in the 15% group showed no changes in the 11.25% group.