Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1401 I don't understand pharmacy, but I know a little bit of chemistry (5k)

On the overall drawing, part of the gearbox was drawn with a broken line and an X drawn on it. It can be seen that Chief Engineer Gao is very casual, as the X was drawn crookedly.

Whether it's spontaneous or not is irrelevant, but both comrades were dumbfounded; wasn't this drawing a bit hastily done...?

However, as long as the main parts are still there, that's fine. You can see that the whole thing can be removed. That's probably what Chief Engineer Gao meant.

However, I still have to ask, it's a rule of the job.

"Chief Engineer Gao, this part is..." The colleague from the Mechanical Engineering Department asked hesitantly, which would have been normal for anyone.

Gao Zhendong glanced at it and casually said, "Oh, this piece? We don't need it. We originally planned to use it for something else, but the current technical conditions don't support it. It's redundant, so we'll cross it out."

It really is……

"Chief Engineer Gao really thinks long-term," a colleague from the Mechanical Engineering Department said with a smile. This was not flattery; Chief Engineer Gao did indeed think far ahead. Unfortunately, technological development could not keep up with the pace of his thinking.

Unfortunately, Chief Engineer Gao had to stop his efforts and wait for the actual technology to develop.

Gao Zhendong carefully added more details, making the lines clearer: "I'm too lazy to redraw this drawing. You can modify and redraw it based on this. Once it's done, please review it for me. By the way, the part numbers are from XXX to XXX, and they are all for this part. You can ignore them for now."

Gao Zhendong was genuinely too lazy to draw; as long as the meaning was conveyed, that was enough. He said the comrades would have no problem with this little bit of work.

The comrades in the Mechanical Engineering Department all laughed. Chief Engineer Gao really does have a casual side. If he's too lazy to draw, he won't redo it. That's good, otherwise we would always feel like we're not doing enough.

"Okay, then we'll get started right away." This is a trial production, not research. We don't even need to submit a special report to apply for funding. It's basically all about materials, shifts, and labor, which can be covered by regular expenses. If anything needs to be dealt with, we can just contact Director Zheng.

Factory Director Zheng would handle everything perfectly, so Chief Engineer Gao wouldn't need to worry about such trivial matters. Their cooperation had always been seamless.

The two separated the invalid part of the materials and took them away in two separate portions.
-
When Gao Zhendong returned home, Lou Xiao'e was waiting for him to come home for dinner; all the food was ready.

"How's your horseshoe crab blood reagent coming along?" Gao Zhendong asked casually while picking up some food.

Gao Changying held a small piece of steamed bun in her hand, looking at her mother and repeating her father's words: "How is it? How is it?"

His voice was soft and childlike, but his tone was steady, like that of a leader.

Lou Xiao'e couldn't help but laugh, and flicked Gao Changying's nose twice: "Why did you have to be so talkative, hahahaha."

Then he turned to Gao Zhendong and said, "We have roughly figured out the mechanism. Horseshoe crab blood contains a special type of cell called amoeboid cells. The cellular material inside the amoeboid cells reacts with the endotoxins of the bacteria, which in turn causes the blood to coagulate."

Gao Zhendong laughed and said, "Then we're very close to the result."

With AI, he didn't use it to ask about horseshoe crab reagents, since that would be too wasteful. AI has a limited number of uses, and you can't just ask questions randomly.

However, for ordinary questions, it is much easier indirectly, since he can solve many problems by cleverly organizing the connections between questions, carefully selecting keywords, and devising five follow-up questions for each question.

So he easily found a paper on horseshoe crab reagent in the system, and it was a very comprehensive one.

Looking at the paper, Gao Zhendong even wondered why, although this thing was discovered in 56, it took 12 years to achieve the official success of the horseshoe crab reagent.

Actually, this question is not difficult to answer, because the answer itself is very simple, but the process of discovering the answer is very difficult.

And that was indeed the case. Lou Xiao'e shook her head after hearing Gao Zhendong's words.

"It's still early. It's not that simple. The lifespan of amoeboid cells in horseshoe crab blood is limited. We haven't figured out what's working inside them yet. What if this active substance stops working after the cells die?"

They can figure it out at the cellular level, but it becomes more difficult at the lower levels.

Gao Zhendong thought for a moment and laughed, "Are you stupid? Why are you so insistent on figuring out what works down to the deformable cells? You just need to know whether the cells are dead or alive and still functioning. As for what exactly works, it doesn't affect your use of the horseshoe crab blood reagent. You can separate the application from the principle; you don't necessarily need to have the principle before you can use it. To put it another way, the ancients used levers a long time ago, but the principle of the lever wasn't established and discovered until Archimedes."

Gao Changhe: "Are you dumbfounded? Are you dumbfounded?"

There are many examples of people using something without understanding its principles; as long as it works well, it's common to use it first and then try to crack it later.

Gao Zhendong's words were a wake-up call. Yes, why be so fixated on discovering the principle first? Especially the example of the lever principle, which was very vivid.

She gently tapped Gao Changhe on the head with her chopsticks, then turned to look at Gao Zhendong: "What you said makes sense. As long as we know the impact of the life or death of deformed cells on effectiveness, that's enough."

Thinking of this, she ignored Gao Changhe, who was clutching his head and yelling, and enthusiastically put down her chopsticks, pulling Gao Zhendong aside: "Come on, help us analyze this. The problem now is that we first need to separate the deformed cells before we can proceed to the next step."

Gao Zhendong was a little surprised: "That's easy, just try centrifugation! You guys work with antibiotics, this is basic operation, right?"

"You make it sound so easy. We've tried it. After centrifugation, the blue blood cells and deformed cells are mixed together and can't be separated." Lou Xiao'e had a look on her face that said, "Do you think I'm stupid?"

Blue blood cells are the cells that give horseshoe crab blood its blue color, but they are different from amorphous cells, which are the real contributors to the effectiveness of the horseshoe crab reagent. Their presence can negatively impact subsequent work.

Her words helped Gao Zhendong understand some of the descriptions in the paper in his head better; otherwise, he would have been completely confused.

Gao Zhendong put down his chopsticks, thought quietly for a while, and compared her words with the paper in his mind, trying to figure out which cell in the paper was the same one Lou Xiao'e was talking about.

Since they are not in the same system, the naming of the same cell is different, and Gao Zhendong can only distinguish them by comparison.

Although Lou Xiao'e's words were simple, Gao Zhendong knew that this at least indicated that they had passed the first hurdle—identifying a horseshoe crab anticoagulant that was effective against horseshoe crab blood without affecting its efficacy.

Even just preventing horseshoe crab blood from clotting requires experimentation. Anticoagulants that work on human blood may not work on horseshoe crab blood, and even if they do, they may cause other problems.

Lou Xiao'e didn't disturb him. She picked up Gao Changhe to prevent his "angry" shouts from affecting Gao Zhendong's thinking, as she knew his mind was racing.

After a while, Gao Zhendong smiled and said, "Okay, add washing solution to suspend the blue blood cells, then centrifuge and wash again, and remove the suspension!"

He wasn't designing, he was comparing, so naturally his speed wouldn't be slow.

However, Lou Xiao'e couldn't understand how you could be so sure that this method would work just by sitting there thinking.

How do you know it will work?

"I don't understand your stuff, but I do know a little bit of chemistry. Loosely speaking, a cell is just a special kind of solid. The reason you can't separate them by centrifugation is simply because blue blood cells and amoeboid cells have similar densities. But even if they're similar, there are always differences. Using a washing solution to enhance the wetting ability of the blue blood cells separates the two types of cells. This is the principle of a chemical experiment, and it has nothing to do with what kind of cells they are; theoretically, it's feasible." Gao Zhendong explained the experimental principle logically, working backward from the answer.

"Hmm...that seems to be the case. But...what kind of detergent should I use?"

Lou Xiao'e quickly realized what was going on and asked the most crucial question: What kind of detergent should we use?

Gao Zhendong pretended to think for a moment: "Use 3% sodium chloride and then adjust the pH to 8.0 with 0.1N standard sodium hydroxide. This should be effective."

As for why it works, he didn't say, and couldn't say.

Lou Xiao'e maintained her usual trust in Gao Zhendong. Since he said so, there must be a reason, right? He does know a little bit about chemistry, after all. Perhaps it's due to the principles of chemistry. Just because she doesn't understand doesn't mean her husband doesn't. Whether it's a mule or a horse, we'll find out once we put it to the test.

She stood up excitedly: "Wait a minute, I'm going to make a phone call!"

Her call was to the school's laboratory; although she had gone home, there were still colleagues and classmates working there.

Lou Xiao'e made the call very quickly, because although the matter was difficult, Gao Zhendong's proposed solution was very simple.

The person in charge of guarding the laboratory and leading the students in experiments was Luo, who was not going home like Lou Xiao'e. As a single woman, she had plenty of time to devote to experiments. However, if experiments were to rely purely on luck, it would be a very grueling and uncertain process.

"Senior Sister Lou, I understand. Don't worry, I'll organize the students to try it right away. If it succeeds, you have to thank your brother-in-law on behalf of our whole group, hahaha." Hearing that Senior Sister Lou and her brother-in-law had found a way, her spirits immediately lifted.

Finding a path in a fog, whether right or wrong, is better than wandering blindly. Even if it's wrong, at least you know there's a path you can't take, which saves time.

Often, as a leader, you can lack many things, but you can't lack ideas, even if they might not be good ideas, as long as they're not bad ideas. If the leader has no ideas, then those behind will be even more confused.

After hanging up the phone, Luo Shimei turned around and shouted, "Classmates! Come here, we have some work to do!"

The experiment appears to be extremely simple, and both the equipment and reagents are readily available, and it takes very little time.

The students who had just finished eating gathered around. With Lou Xiao'e and Professor Qi absent, Senior Sister Luo was the backbone. Having work was a good thing, indicating the possibility of progress. The students were all eager to get started.

The experiment was indeed quick; there was no shortage of manpower, equipment, or reagents, and the process didn't take long. Just a few tens of minutes later, while Lou Xiao'e was washing the dishes, the phone rang at home.

Gao Changying staggered over and answered the phone, her voice still childish: "Hello, who are you looking for?"

"Go find your mother!" Overjoyed, Junior Sister Luo was completely unaware that there was anything wrong with her words.

Lou Xiao'e wiped her hands on her apron, picked up the phone, and had barely said "hello" when Luo Shimei's excited voice came through: "Senior Sister Lou, we've separated! We've separated!"

The high spirits were palpable even through the phone line, and you could faintly hear the classmates chattering happily nearby.

"Are you sure?" Lou Xiao'e asked again to confirm.

"Confirmed. Under the microscope, after extracting the washing solution, there are very few blue blood cells left! The amorphous cell count has reached 51,000!" Junior Sister Luo laughed on the other end.

Microscopic observation is currently their most reliable method of examination at the cellular level. They calculate the area per unit area under the microscope based on the magnification, and then count the number of cells per unit area.

Lou Xiao'e didn't say anything else: "Wait a minute!"

Without waiting for Luo Shimei's reply, she put down the phone, turned around, hugged Gao Zhendong, and kissed him.

"You're really good at this little bit of chemistry, hahaha."

After saying that, she turned around and picked up the phone again: "Okay, I thank your brother-in-law on behalf of the comrades, hahaha. Next, we'll try to see if the dead deformable cells are useful, but we don't need to work on that today. We'll discuss it together tomorrow. Everyone should rest tonight and think about what to do next."

Gao Zhendong didn't say much, letting them work on it themselves first, and only speaking up when they really couldn't figure it out, otherwise Lou Xiao'e might not feel a sense of accomplishment. In fact, they were only one step away from getting to this point, after all, horseshoe crab reagent is really quite simple.

Lou Xiao'e, after hanging up the phone, laughed and said, "Another step forward, even though you were the one pushing me forward. It's just a pity that there aren't many horseshoe crabs left, so we'll have to ask the comrades in the agricultural sector for help again."

Regardless of how we moved forward, just ask if we moved forward at all.

"Isn't it possible to have repeated blood draws? Why are they all gone?" Gao Zhendong was a little puzzled. The comrades from the agricultural sector had gotten quite a lot last time, and there should be more supplies coming in the future.

"It can be drawn repeatedly, but the blood gets dimmer with each draw. Forget about physical and chemical testing, it visibly changes from blue to light blue, and some even turn white." Although blue blood cells are useless, they are positively correlated with the number of deformable cells.

Gao Zhendong laughed: "You guys are smoking way too often, aren't you? How much do you smoke at once?"

"Females have about 150ml, while males have around 80ml, with slight variations depending on individual size." Female horseshoe crabs are larger, while males are smaller.

"You guys are really going too far with that, aren't you?" Horseshoe crabs aren't that big.

"We have no choice but to be ruthless. We don't have much experience or technology in raising horseshoe crabs, and they die after a short time. It's better to extract as much as possible while they're still alive," Lou Xiao'e said helplessly.

Upon hearing this, Gao Zhendong's heart skipped a beat. "Hey, if you're going to talk about this, I'm not sleepy anymore." The first half of that paper was about the artificial breeding methods of horseshoe crabs.

It's time to show off! And he has no choice but to, otherwise there's no way to explain how he was so well-prepared.

"Why didn't you ask me?" Gao Zhendong said with a smile.

"You have a way?" Lou Xiao'e looked pleasantly surprised. You know how to do this too?
"It's so new! Otherwise, why do you think I asked you about the horseshoe crab reagent today? It was because I prepared this for you."

After showing off, Gao Zhendong pulled out a piece of paper from his "pocket," which contained the feeding methods for horseshoe crabs, including environment, food, and management—everything was covered. However, it didn't mention breeding. The breeding of these creatures is related to the environment; they can only be caught and raised, otherwise they wouldn't have been nearly driven to extinction by bloodletting.

“Take it. I got this from my comrades in eastern Guangdong. They eat this kind of thing there, so they have their own methods for raising it.”

Sorry, comrades in eastern Guangdong, for the sake of the patients, you're taking the blame again.

Gao Zhendong said this without worrying that Lou Xiao'e would verify it. Lou Xiao'e didn't have the time or the means. He had already said it was a private matter, and if you couldn't find the "private matter" I was looking for, then it was up to me to decide.

Lou Xiao'e, as expected, didn't care about this at all. Instead, she took it with a happy expression, glanced at it, and saw that it was just one page with not much content.

Seeing that although the word count was short, the content was complete, Lou Xiao'e felt that there was hope. Since it came from the people, the comrades naturally couldn't write as many and thick articles as textbooks. It would be good enough if they could explain things clearly.

"Oh ho~~~~~~ I'll go find the comrades in the agricultural sector tomorrow and ask them to cooperate in raising some to minimize consumption." Although it was still early, Lou Xiao'e already had a keen sense that if this thing continued to develop like this, it would be doomed sooner or later.

Moreover, the females of these creatures are larger and have more blood, so they mainly extract from the females, making it difficult to achieve a tight seal.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Yes, you also need to work with the comrades in the agricultural sector to study the age range for blood collection and the timing of release, etc., to minimize the impact on their reproduction. I suggest that if artificial breeding is successful, blood should not be drawn from a single animal more than 4 to 8 times a year, and each time should be 80 to 100 ml."

Gao Zhendong provided the frequency and number of blood draws from his thesis, so they didn't need to experiment with it themselves.

"Okay, I understand." Although she didn't know where Gao Zhendong got this data, Lou Xiao'e believed that what Gao Zhendong said was probably correct.

Gao Zhendong nodded. "Let's get started. There's more to come."
-
In a desolate Gobi desert in Northwest China, a car that looked like it was not to be trifled with rumbled into a pre-marked position.

Not far from this vehicle were comrades from the Army Equipment Bureau, the National Defense Industry Committee, and the manufacturer.

The comrades' faces were all beaming with joy. Ten years of honing their skills had finally brought this sword to the fore; it was time to finally unsheathe it and put it to the test. Of course, ten years was definitely less than that.

Logically, given the tasks this vehicle is tasked with, a tracked chassis with high mobility would be better. However, the long, thick cylinders on the back of this vehicle mean that a tracked chassis is not feasible; there simply aren't enough for them.

The CA10-modified launch vehicle seemed somewhat powerless at this point, almost crawling into the position.

(End of this chapter)