Vol 4 Chapter 738: Information hidden in life

On the way home by car, Fang Yuan kept thinking about the conversation with Fu Wenhe just now.
A picture of civilization struggling for survival in the apocalypse came to mind.
Perhaps in the next twenty years, human beings will also face the same situation and the same choices.
Do everything possible to keep the evidence that civilization once existed in the world.
As Fang Yuan thought, he pressed the glass ball in his hand and slowly rolled on the table.
"What are you thinking?" Seeing that he was thinking, Han Youwei leaned closer and asked in a low voice.
"Nothing, thinking about the topic discussed with Professor Fu Wenhe." Fang Yuan answered casually.
"Let's talk about it, let's think about it together, maybe there will be different gains." Han Youwei pursed her lips and smiled.
"I'm thinking, if there has ever existed a civilization on the terrestrial planets in the asteroid belt, before their civilization is destroyed, they must really want to leave something." Fang Yuan said with emotion.
"Indeed, if civilization cannot continue, there will always be something left." Han Youwei nodded.
Niu Dazhi interjected: "If it were me, I would shoot a lot of videos and store them in the hard drive. In the future, if someone finds the hard drive I left behind, they can see my unruly image."
Eve held his cheeks, rolled his eyes and said: "The time scale of the universe is hundreds of thousands of years. If other civilizations have discovered your hard drive, it is also a piece of scrap iron."
"Then what do you use to save?" Niu Dazhi went back to the topic again.
"Nothing can store information for that long, dozens, millions of years, or even hundreds of millions of years. No matter can be stored for so long without deformation." Eve waved his hand.
"Yes. No matter can be preserved forever." Fang Yuan agreed.
Han Youwei thought: "If there is something that can be preserved forever, I think there is probably only life."
"Life is even more impossible? What life can exist for hundreds of millions of years?" Niu Dazhi shook his head and questioned.
Eve reached out and hooked Han Youwei's arm, and said, "Youwei is right. If there is something that can be preserved for hundreds of millions of years, there is only life, a continuous life."
"I read little, so just lie to me." Niu Dazhi still questioned.
"You just read less, do you know how long Xiong Ba's life lasted on earth?"
Without waiting for him to answer, Eve continued: "Giant pandas have lived on the earth for 8 million years. Look at the giant pandas 8 million years ago. Isn't this the power of life? It can last for 8 million years. Long.
"There are also Chinese sturgeons, which appeared on the earth more than 100 million years ago. This is a living fossil.
"There is something more powerful, the ginkgo tree. The ginkgo tree appeared on the earth 270 million years ago.
"How can your hard drive be kept for so long? Of course, life can last the longest in the universe."
Fang Yuan’s eyes lit up after hearing Han Youwei’s and Eve’s points of view:
Yes. If a civilization wants to record history and culture, it’s useless to use any material. Perhaps life is the longest way to preserve information. Methods."
"What? What are you thinking about?" Niu Dazhi blinked his eyes. He was bewildered by Eve just now. After hearing Fang Yuan's words, he was even more confused.
Han Youwei said in surprise: "You mean..."
Fang Yuan raised the glass ball in his hand and said, "If the microbes in it come from the civilization of the asteroid belt, maybe something can be found in these microbes."
"You mean, that civilization might store information in microorganisms?" Han Youwei immediately understood what it meant.
Niu Dazhi scratched his scalp and said, "What do you think? Microbes are not semiconductors. How do you store information?"
Eve squinted at him and said, "Your biology must have been taught by a physical education teacher."
Thinking of this possibility, Fang Yuan immediately copied the "base scalpel" and began to observe the microscopic structure of the microorganisms through the observation ability attached to this ability.
The internal structure of the cell is just swept away, and then the focus is on the genetic sequence.
Genes are composed of base sequences in a double helix structure, which can be simply viewed as quaternary codes.
If there is sufficiently powerful genetic technology, it is entirely possible to record information in these base sequences.
As for changing the base sequence of organisms, will it cause biological mutation?
Mutation is possible, but the problem is not too big.
Among human genes, 98% are redundant, that is, they are not expressed.
Therefore, most base sequences do not affect organisms.
As long as genetic technology is strong enough, information can be recorded in the base sequence of biological genes without affecting the survival of the organism.
Therefore, there may indeed be information in the gene fragments of these microorganisms.
Of course, this is just Fang Yuan's whim, whether there is any, it needs to be verified.
Fang Yuan started observing the base sequence of the microorganisms with supernatural powers, trying to find some rules from it.
However, even if there is information in the genes of these microorganisms, it is impossible for a normal person to directly see the content of the information from the base sequence.
First of all.
If the base sequence contains information, it should be quaternary, which is completely different from the binary code used by humans.
Secondly, even if the codes of these base sequences are really seen, the language of human beings is different from that of civilizations in the asteroid belt. Even if the information codes are extracted, I don't know what these codes mean.
However, Fang Yuan is still observing carefully, not to see what information is written in these base sequences, but to find out possible information codes.
Can't see the content of the code, but it is still possible to see some patterns.
If the recorded information is encoded manually, it has specific characteristics.
If you look closely at this point, you can see it.
For example, some specific coding sequences appear continuously, these are obvious characteristics.
Fang Yuan watched carefully, his eyes lit up suddenly, and a hint of surprise appeared on his face.
Han Youwei saw the expression on Fang Yuan's face, her heart beating loudly, and asked, "Is there really?"
"Wait a minute, not sure yet."
Fang Yuan only saw a segment that looked like a man-made recording, but he was not sure yet and needed to continue searching.
The search method is also very simple. Look for the same code sequence. If you can find multiple segments of the same code, it can basically prove that this is the coded information recorded by the intelligent life.
Fang Yuan continued his search. Two minutes later, he found the second paragraph, then the third and fourth paragraphs.
When he found the same coded fragment in the fourth paragraph, Fang Yuan knew that he should have discovered something extraordinary.