Senior cycle runner-up essay

  • Homemade Crystals

    "From Lab to Life" by Shamira Solana, Mercy Secondary School, Dublin, who came
    second in the Senior Cycle category of the Science Week 2008 photography
    competition

    By Bobby Tang (17), Royal Belfast Academical Institution, College Square East, Belfast

    Senior cycle runner-up in our schools essay competition on "Science – Shaping Our World"

    3124 Witham Avenue.

    As Ken Cohen confirmed the address he thought the anonymous sender had either made a mistake or played a trick on him. The house, as he imagined it, was grand and elegant, not a small and dingy townhouse.

    There was just no way the mysterious Peter Blackstaff lived here! Sighing to himself, Ken Cohen recounted how Mr Blackstaff firstly came to prominence and then to infamy.

    A few years ago, an obscure man (the man of course being our own Peter Blackstaff) submitted four papers to various scientific journals. These included definitive procedures and theories on ongoing scientific investigations.

    In fact, these theories were so advanced that the scientific world was naturally sceptical. However, when scientists began taking him seriously, these papers merely changed the world.

    The first was about stem cell research. Mr Blackstaff, seemingly without any previous training or access to a lab, proposed a way to create specific human tissue from stem cells of cloned embryos.

    When his proposal was tested and found to work, the world was astonished. No longer would patients have to wait for transplants. Even ordinary people could now renew their organs in an attempt to prolong life.

    The second came out soon after and it only solved the problem of world hunger. This time Mr Blackstaff developed a series of genetic codes which, having been inserted into a certain crop, made it resistant to disease and allowed it to be grown in less arable lands.

    The next one extended the work of physicists at CERN by formulating a device capable of harnessing the extreme power of nuclear fusion.

    Finally, his last and most astounding paper came just over a year ago. He found a way for antibiotics to adapt to mutating viruses. This aided the discovery of Vincamoxin – an antibiotic so powerful and extremely adaptable that viruses stood no chance.

    Currently in use, Vincamoxin shows a 100% success rate on infectious diseases and has improved medical care worldwide dramatically…

    If only the same could be said about the other discoveries. The disease-resistant crop had flourished well - almost too well.

    Latest reports were circulating that it had outcompeted all other species. Some reports even suggested that it was carrying lethal diseases to all other crops and the "answer to world hunger" was exacerbating the initial problem.

    The power of nuclear fusion was also having adverse effects. Governments spent billions on making greater weapons of destruction and there had been incidences where hydrogen bombs were dropped in war zones. Slowly, the world stopped hailing Mr Blackstaff as a genius.

    Cold and wet, Ken Cohen was about to leave when he noticed the door slightly ajar. Had it always been like that? Curious, he decided to investigate, and at once he began to notice something strange.

    All of the rooms in the house were empty and bare except one. This room had been completely covered in scrap paper, on the floor and on a single desk. It looked as though someone had been living and working meticulously here.

    Undaunted, Ken flicked through a pile of papers. He was not a scholar, but he could see that the mathematical equations and calculations were highly advanced. He skimmed through some Bible references, which included a vague reference to the left hand of God and the following passage:

    Wild, dark times are rumbling toward us, and the prophet who wishes to write a new apocalypse will have to invent entirely new beasts, and beasts so terrible that the ancient animal symbols of St John will seem like cooing doves and cupids in comparison.

    As Cohen put the papers down, he noticed something he should have spotted before. On the table, a letter from Mr Blackstaff and addressed to him!

    Numbed by the shock, Cohen slowly opened the letter slowly and began to read:

    Look! A white horse. The one riding it had a bow. A crown was given to him. He went forth
    conquering so he might finish his conquest.

    I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his
    hand.

    Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the
    earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.

    I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was
    following close behind him.

    In addition, at the bottom of the letter, one word was written in untidy scrawl… "Sorry". Now his heart really began to race. Now he understood. The apocalypse was coming and three of the four horsemen were already here. Conquest. Famine. War. Death.

    Stem cell research had been the world's false messiah by conquering the natural process of aging and wiping out diseases involving genetic changes.

    Genetically modifying a super-crop will bring worldwide famine, and a potential world war is looking likely as the arms race continues.

    Only death was unaccounted for. Ken Cohen felt intense fear at this point. Confused in his thoughts and the millions of electrical impulses racing through his body, he did the only thing his brain would allow. He ran.

    A few hours later, Ken Cohen fell ill. This was strange, as the doctor noted, for he was undertaking a course of Vincamoxin.

    A few hours after that, he was dead and the disease he had contracted earlier that day was spreading.