<Encryption: SQ-SYMM>
I am quite beside myself. I have to wait for the next group of samples to finish to be sure, but this is absolutely amazing. I have spent the past week exposing human cells to the spores of the big star shaped fungi that thrive out in the deep swamps. After the incident with Davis we needed to know how big a dose it took before, well, before what happened to young Davis happened to anyone else.
Sample after sample succumbed, the ultra-fast growing tumors erupted at levels far below what Davis had endured. It is easy to think that if he had followed his orders more diligently he might have survived, but it looks as if our standard procedures would not have given the fungi sufficient space. His death, at least, will save the rest of the crew.
At any rate I finally got the spore density down to a point where there was no obvious reaction. I reported my findings to the Captain so he could develop procedures for scanning and sampling to keep minimum safe distance from the fungi groves. All well and good.
I proceeded to phase two, allowing the exposure at low levels to continue – but for several days. I was happy to discover that the extended exposure did not seem to make up for the low concentration.
And the I noticed something really odd.
All cells keep time, in a manner of speaking. It’s the same for all Earth-based life. You can look at the state of internal proteins and telomeres and a cell will tell you its age.
But not this one. This one didn’t know its age. Rather, it thought its was the same age as several days earlier. The day it was first exposed, in fact. I checked it 10 times at least.
The spores had stopped the cell from aging.
The implications are simply beyond my ability to express. Provided I have not made a grave error, this is the discovery of the age. Possibly all ages.
I can’t wait to tell Ursula.
Staff Commentary on this Fragment and MO.d32 can be found here.