Chapter 89: Chapter 86 The Astonished Reviewer
Morten L. Grobe, translated into Chinese, can be called 莫顿.L.格罗比.
He is a Swede, currently 59 years old, working at the renowned Cold Spring Harbor.
Don’t let the name Cold Spring Harbor fool you into thinking it’s a port; in reality, it’s one of the holy sites of life sciences globally.
If there are readers who haven’t sold their biology textbooks as scrap, they can open to the Chapter on DNA and find the discoverer of the DNA double helix structure; you’ll see a handsome guy named Watson.
Yes, he used to work here, and he’s still around.
Of course.
In 2019, Watson, for certain reasons, had his honorary title stripped. The right or wrong isn’t being discussed here, but it’s somewhat similar to J.K. Rowling, with different opinions.
Focus back to the main point.
For someone like Watson to join, Cold Spring Harbor’s research capability needs no elaboration.
Apart from military-affiliated research institutes of various countries, Cold Spring Harbor can securely rank among the top five life science research institutes today.
For Morten to have a laboratory named after him in such an institution, his track record is naturally exceptional.
Morten L. Groby, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, lifetime honorary academician of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, foreign academician of the Yingjiang Academy of Sciences.
Awarded the Lasker Award in 2017 for his research on cellular organization, he is currently one of the leading figures most likely to win the next Nobel Prize.
A few months ago, due to some health issues, Morten temporarily returned to his hometown in Sweden, in a small town under Vestros.
Although many small towns in Europe have gradually developed modern vibes with technological advancements, even the most advanced towns and villages struggle to have top-notch scientific experimental equipment.
Therefore, unable to conduct sophisticated scientific experiments, Morten spends his days recuperating and occasionally takes on the task of peer-reviewing journal papers.
Not long ago, he received a call from an old friend.
After some much-anticipated small talk, the friend expressed a wish for him to act as an external review editor for a student’s paper.
Initially, Morten refused, as a Ph.D. student usually had nothing to do with journals like NAR, which commission articles.
However, after some bargaining, this Lasker Award recipient was eventually bribed at the price of five jin of Erjingtiao with bacon—he has a particular fondness for Sichuan cuisine, loving spicy food even though he can’t handle much, with a favorite of Erjingtiao fried with bacon.
But bribery aside, he seriously told his old friend one thing:
If the quality of the paper didn’t meet standards, he wouldn’t agree to pass it!
His old friend agreed cheerfully, seemingly hiding an inexplicable tone, almost as if...
Boasting?
And just a few days after they reached an agreement, an email arrived in Morten’s inbox as expected.
"Common pheromone-binding proteins....."
Morten read out the paper’s title softly, roughly gauging its content:
"The synthesis approach of fourth-generation imidacloprid? Now that’s interesting....."
Morten had once conducted a research project in 2014, which involved synthesizing pheromones of small white moths, and the achievements got published in Medicine.
Latterly, the patent earned him the title of lifelong director of the H鹰 Agricultural Association and a license fee of three million USD over five years.
Further, many of his students and acquaintances work in top-tier biopharmaceutical companies, which means that Morten is quite well-versed in imidacloprid.
"Cockroaches belong to the order Blattodea, family Blattidae, and are worldwide urban pests....."
"...In the search for mates, mature female adults of most cockroach species release two types of sexual pheromones: the volatile sexual pheromone Blattellaquinone (3,6-dioxocyclohexa-1,4-dien-1-yl) methanol) and two contact sexual pheromones 3,11-dimethylhentriacontan-2-one and 3,11-dimethylnonatriacontan-2-one"....."
"Based on transcriptomic data from the antennae and other tissues of the American cockroach, 109 OBP tissue expression profiles were obtained, and two high-expression candidate PBP genes in male antennae, Bger OBP26 and Bger OBP40, were screened..."
"Subsequently, two high-purity recombinant proteins of OBPs were obtained via in vitro protein expression and purification..."
"".....A small molecule fluorescence competitive binding experiment was used to study the binding capability of two OBPs with three pheromones and analogs....."
After reading the abstract of Xu Yun’s paper, Morten began to doubt his initial judgment hesitantly:
The content of this paper seems to be more than merely about fourth-generation imidacloprid.....
After all, if it were only about synthesizing pheromones, there would be no need to discuss the 3,11-dimethylhentriacontan-2-one-related issues, right?
With this mindset, he continued reading the main text.
And after skimming just a few lines, Morten’s eyes lit up:
"Cyclization? And using transition metals? What a great idea!"
He then read line by line, pausing only slightly at the section on 5-epoxy-1-hexadecyn:
Xu Yun did not detail the changes of 5-epoxy-1-hexadecyn at constant temperature, and the accompanying illustration was somewhat simplified, akin to a sudden fast-forward from whispering sweet nothings to a deeply ingrained transformation.
But Morten didn’t mind too much, as it was just an intermediary transition; the key lay in the subsequent sections.
"LTHF....."
"Harmonious primer...."
Morten continued reading line by line, becoming more engrossed the further he read.
In discussing scientific research papers, many people may have doubts:
If advanced technology is kept secret, why are there so many so-called scientific research papers published?
The reason is quite simple.
Firstly, most publishing parties apply for a patent before the paper is published.
In other words, applying for a patent first and then publishing a paper ensures legal protection of their interests.
Secondly, the content of the paper isn’t about disclosing all the information available.
Papers usually cover theoretical aspects, such as the principles of chemical reactions, the main components of materials (components with negligible but crucial importance are usually kept confidential), metallurgical organization of alloys, etc.
These can be disclosed—or regardless of being disclosed, competitors can obtain the information by analyzing the products.
The remaining critical information usually isn’t touched upon in papers:
Key process parameters, temperature, pressure, component ratios, the composition, and state of catalysts, etc., are all kept confidential.
Additionally, papers generally describe laboratory statuses, not large-scale production statuses. The small batch status in laboratories and the industrialized production status are entirely different matters.
Thus, papers often explain ideas, and rarely does anyone fully showcase core technology, except for when the third senior once foolishly revealed it.
Of course, mathematical papers are an exception.
Four hours later.
Morten exhaled with a sigh, suddenly wearing a spectator’s expression:
"Bayer’s D.E. laboratory... Senxia Pharmaceutical’s Kameyama Project Team... Luo Family’s AIRC laboratory...
If I remember correctly, these laboratories are all currently researching fourth-generation imidacloprid or clothianidin, and the funds being invested are not trivial.....
Tsk tsk, this is going to be interesting."
He then turned his attention to the author’s section, for the first time earnestly acknowledging that name:
"First author....."
"Xu Yun....."
....