Ruidian, Royal Academy of Sciences, Nobel Committee.
In the gorgeous domed hall, a group of experts and scholars were holding a meeting to discuss a matter.
"Wei Kang, who was blocked by us, actually established an award named after his surname to give awards to scholars in basic fields."
"I heard that each bonus is US$3 million, which is twice as much as ours." Someone couldn't help but sigh.
"The annual bonus of US$15 million is really shocking and exciting."
"So what? How could the Holy Grail of science be corrupted by money? How could a Chinese Pheasant Prize be compared with the Nobel Prize?"
"Haha, don't you know? Sanqing Group's organ transplantation technology has been used in hundreds of clinical cases, which has brought him a huge global reputation. In the future, if we want to transplant organs, we will have to look at his Face."
A middle-aged scholar wearing glasses sneered: "Such achievements cannot win the Nobel Prize just because they come from the Sanqing Dynasty. Do you think this affects the reputation of the Sanqing Dynasty or the Nobel Prize?"
Another old man with white beard and hair showed a thoughtful expression.
"Sanqing Group has made outstanding research results in biology and medicine in recent years, but their best scientists have not been able to win the Nobel Prize and cannot win the highest academic honor."
"The Weishi Science Award is a compensation to them in terms of money and reputation."
"It just so happens that we can take advantage of the huge reputation brought by organ transplantation technology to push this award to the highest level of academia."
"This is digging up our roots." An expert looked solemn, with worry in his eyes.
"Organ transplantation technology is the Holy Grail of biology. If it can win the Nobel Prize, it will be an honor for the Nobel Prize. If it cannot, it will put the Nobel Prize on the pillar of shame."
Someone sighed and said: "Is it because of the prize money of more than one million that the Nobel Prize has its current status?"
"No, it's because we can always get rid of all prejudices, try to be fair, and award awards to the brightest human stars."
"Those great scientists do not need the recognition of the Nobel Prize. On the contrary, the Nobel Prize needs their recognition."
"In fact, based on their achievements, whether they win the award or not, it will not affect the honor they have."
"Even if Einstein did not win the Nobel Prize, he is still the discoverer of the theory of relativity and one of the greatest scientists in history."
"Newton did not win the Nobel Prize, which does not affect his great achievements."
"Perhaps we made a mistake from the beginning and should not have excluded people from Sanqing."
Hearing this, the experts present looked at each other with a hint of embarrassment.
However, some people hold on and are unwilling to admit their mistakes.
An old lady wearing a gorgeous hat said arrogantly: "I have no regrets about the decision I have made."
"Science must always serve mankind. No matter how great a scientist is, he cannot be anti-human and become a racist."
"And since then, Weicome has intensified its efforts. They even founded a journal of their own, and their employees only submit articles to their own journals. They are simply working against us."
"A person who is so stubborn, has no open mind, and remains stubborn is not worthy of becoming a Nobel Prize winner."
"I only regret that I did not recognize Wei Kang's true face and voted for him."
"I promise I will never make this mistake again."
However, after she said these indignant words, she was not recognized by all the experts present as before.
Except for a few people who nodded in agreement, the others remained silent, and there was even a hint of coldness in their eyes.
The entire conference hall suddenly fell into an awkward silence.
"It's a pity that such a great figure who leads the times ends up standing on the opposite side of us."
"It's time and destiny. When the stars in the east shine in the sky, we can only look up from a distance and cannot witness this moment."
Someone sighed inaudibly, as if he was regretting something.
Almost suddenly, the atmosphere became inexplicably heavy.
****
On the other side of the distant earth, Sanqing headquarters.
After Wei Kang announced the establishment of the "Wei Science Award", he assigned specific work arrangements to his subordinates.
These administrative tasks are not difficult if you have money.
Moreover, he had been prepared before and established a science foundation under the Pangu Research Institute, but now it is just used to operate independently.
The only thing that was a bit difficult was the list of winners. He sent letters to experts and scholars he knew and did not know, asking them to nominate candidates.
Wei Kang knew very well that the first session was probably just to attract others. It didn't matter who the winner was, what mattered was his attitude.
Only when you pay for the real thing can you convince everyone.
Only when scientists believe they can actually get paid and establish a routine can the Weishi Prize take root in academia.
He also doesn't mind awarding money to the losers of the past few Nobel Prizes, and he doesn't mind awarding it to foreigners, because the winners in biology and medicine will always be Chinese.
Once the foundation is laid, all the next few sessions can do is try to remain impartial. With him here, this is not difficult to do.
Although he doesn't know much about mathematics and physics, as long as he chooses the research results that have the greatest impact on the world, he will never give the wrong award.
No matter what science and technology, it will eventually fall into reality. No matter how sophisticated the theory is, it will show some power in the real world in three, five, or ten years.
Science is not just about publishing papers. Science is the science of experiments and cannot fall into the reality of theory. The explanation is not that important and is just a castle in the air.
In this regard, whether it is his Weishi Science Prize or the Nobel Prize, he adheres to the same standards.
Just when he was busy, there was a knock on the door.
Tuk Tuk~
"Come in!"
"Hey, Li Zhong, why do you look so ugly? What's the matter?"
Looking at Li Zhong who came in with a serious face, Wei Kang couldn't help but be a little surprised.
As a veteran of the Sanqing Dynasty, Li Zhong has no talent in scientific research. He is more serious and reliable in his work. He has been working steadily for more than ten years and has also taken the position of clinical project director of the group.
He is mainly responsible for drug clinical trials and marketing, as well as some generic drug business. He also serves as the deputy director of the cancer laboratory and can be regarded as a diligent butler.
Li Zhong smiled bitterly and said, "There is something I must report to you. I hope I am unfounded."
"Just say it." Wei Kang's face instantly became serious.
Li Zhong took out a piece of paper material and handed it over: "I recently noticed a phenomenon in the case database. Cancer patients over 60 years old have an increasingly higher recurrence rate after being cured with our anti-cancer drugs for ten years. ”
"Although our anti-cancer drugs are constantly being iteratively upgraded, cancer laboratory personnel have developed nanopill drug delivery forms, making the third generation of anti-cancer drugs more effective and less drug-resistant."
"However, the increasing recurrence rate in elderly patients is also a less optimistic trend."
"The recurrence rate for these patients over 60 years old is nearly 20%, while for patients over 80 years old, the recurrence rate exceeds 50%."
His expression was solemn, and his eyes showed deep worry.
“Mr.
Wei Kang was also shocked when he heard this. He quickly took the report and read it carefully.
This is the latest report from a cancer laboratory, which analyzed the data of all cancer patients in the past 10 years and finally reached a surprising conclusion.
For patients with serious diseases, Sanqing will follow up on the patient's condition, so it has accumulated a huge patient database.
Anti-cancer drugs have been available for more than ten years, and some of the earliest patients who were cured of cancer by taking drugs gradually show signs of recurrence.
Among them, the majority are elderly people over 60 years old.
As for those young and middle-aged people under the age of 60, the number of recurrences is much smaller, only about 1%, and most of them are caused by serious external stimuli, such as bad living habits, viral infections, etc.
The good news is that these elderly people whose cancer has recurred have basically brought their condition under control after taking medicine again.
The bad news is that after detailed testing, new cancer genes have been found in some elderly people.
For example, some patients got bowel cancer 10 years ago, but now, 10 years later, they get lung cancer.
Ten years ago, it was a KRAS gene mutation in colon cancer, but now a lung cancer pik3ca gene mutation has been detected.
This can only show that the probability of gene mutation in the patient's body has significantly increased, and the cancer gene has been mutated again, leading to the recurrence of cancer.
The report finally concluded that the cancer in these elderly people may not be caused by external factors, but by internal gene mutations in the body. Taking anti-cancer drugs alone can only treat the symptoms but not the root cause.
This time I take medicine to control the disease, but it is very likely that in two years, the cancer will change its way again, mutate a new gene, and come back again.
Cancer in the elderly will continue like a chronic disease until the moment of death.
After Wei Kang read the report, he fell silent for a moment.
The situation mentioned in the report is very serious. Although these relapsed patients took second- and third-generation anti-cancer drugs, the effect was still very good, and the worsening tumors disappeared quickly.
But those cancer genes are still in the patient's body. His medicine can only destroy the DNA of cancer cells, but it cannot eliminate the cancer genes in the patient's body.
Anticancer drugs are like firefighters, they can only provide emergency relief but cannot cure the disease at all.
Unless genetic mutations can be eliminated, cancer will always be like a maggot attached to the bone and cannot be completely eliminated.
But eliminating genetic mutations is an impossible task.
All cells in the human body can only divide a limited number of times. After 30-70 times at most, the cells will die on their own.
Cells have evolved this mechanism to prevent cancer.
Every time it divides, it is a replication process of DNA, and errors often occur in this process.
It's like when humans copy articles, they often lose one character, add one more character, or simply type a character into a homophone.
This is insignificant to an article and will not affect the expression of the meaning at all.
But when it comes to genes, it can have dire consequences.
When this genetic abnormality accumulates to a certain extent, cells will divide disorderly and become cancer cells.
Under normal circumstances, the human body has an error correction mechanism that can often eliminate these crazy cells.
However, when the probability of genetic mutations reaches a certain level, more and more mutated genes accumulate.
When there are only a few madmen, it is easy to eliminate them. When there are dozens or hundreds of madmen popping up at every turn, any error correction mechanism will be exhausted.
Especially when some key genes undergo fatal mutations, things become completely out of control.
For example, proto-oncogenes play an important role in the cell cycle and are essential for normal cell division.
Mutations in these genes, sometimes even just a change in one base of DNA, can cause them to function abnormally, causing cells to divide out of control. At this time, proto-oncogenes are transformed into oncogenes.
There are also some tumor suppressor genes, whose function under normal circumstances is to inhibit cell canceration.
Among these genes, some can slow down cell division, some can repair DNA damage, and some can cause cell death at the appropriate time.
When mutations disrupt the function of these genes, cells can divide out of control.
The normal functioning of the human body, like a well-run country, depends on the various functions of genes.
And cancer is like anarchy, it makes cells dirty, brutal and short-lived, causing the body to collapse.
They divide without limit, their growth has no direction and is not affected by external factors such as hormones;
They are involved in angiogenesis, they trick the body into supplying blood;
They ignore any signal to stop growth, they can resist apoptosis and avoid programmed cell death;
They can metastasize and spread to other parts of the body.
This process is entirely internal and is a problem of the body itself.
Cancer is the human body trying its best to kill itself. It is suicide without permission.
It is the price humans pay for evolution.
If cells cannot mutate, humans will never get cancer, but humans will also be unable to evolve and will always look the same.
In the real world, this means species extinction.
Although evolution is sometimes difficult for individuals, overall it is good for the species.
Therefore, there is genetic mutation and canceration.
In fact, it is an inherent property of the cell, not a disease.
It stems from an evolutionary need, the same need that made us human.
Humans in the past did not live long enough to develop cancer in large numbers.
With the advent of modern society, everything has changed.
Human beings are living longer and longer, and as aging occurs, more and more genetic mutations occur, releasing the demon of cancer.
Aging is a phenomenon common to all species and begins within the organism.
It is possible to slow down the process, but it is impossible to escape it forever.
Cancer is the fate of species evolution and the curse of eternal life.
To avoid cancer, we can only solve the problem at its source.
After thinking about this, Wei Kang couldn't help but smile bitterly.
He murmured to himself, lost in thought.
"So the only way to completely eliminate cancer is to change human genes?"
"Unfortunately, human genes are too complex, so I'm afraid it's not possible at the moment."
"However, there are genes that are prone to cancer, and there are also longevity genes that are not prone to cancer."
"Family genes often play an important role in people who live longer."
"Living to 80 is basically a result of following a healthy lifestyle, but after that, it's almost entirely a matter of genes."
"The probability of cancer developing is fundamentally a genetic issue."
"The best way to ensure a healthy and long life is to choose your parents and choose genes that are healthy and not prone to cancer."
"When it comes to the underlying design of life, there is nothing I can do to face the century-old problem of immortality."
"I am a scientist, not God. I cannot design a perfect human being. I can only tinker, knock, and become an all-round tinker." (End of Chapter)
