Super Genius DNA

Chapter 288: An Ordinary Scientist (2)

“Uh...”

Ryu Ji-Won looked puzzled.

“Where’s Mom and Dad?” Young-Joon asked.

“They went to Aunt’s house for something. They’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Hello,” Rosaline said to Ryu Ji-Won.

“H... Hello,” responded Ryu Ji-Won reflexively in the midst of extreme confusion.

“I’m Rosaline. Nice to meet you.”

Rosaline walked over quickly and shook her hand. Then, she jumped on to the living room sofa, lied down, and began to shake her legs distractingly.

“Wait.”

Ryu Ji-Won gestured over to Young-Joon and took him to another room. She locked the door.

“Who is she?” she asked.

“I adopted her. I brought her from the United States. She looks similar to Sae-Yi, right?”

“Not just similar to Sae-Yi, she looks exactly like her except for her hair color.”

“Yeah.”

“Is that why you adopted her? Because she reminds you of Sae-Yi?”

“No way. Rosaline was with Doctor Elsie before, but she can no longer take care of her now. She doesn’t have a guardian, and she was going to be sent to an orphanage, so I said I would take her. I think she’s a talent that needs support at the corporate or national level.”

“Is that the girl who was photographed with you in Korea?”

“Yeah. Doctor Elsie brought Rosaline with her when she came to Korea. Rosaline is from a Korean-American family.”

“...”

“Anyway, take care of her. I’ll take her to live with me if you or our parents have any problems, but consider her family.”

Ryu Ji-Won went outside and sat on the living room sofa.

Rosaline was sitting on the sofa with her shaking legs propped up on the armrests.

“Uh... Can I call you Rosaline?” Ryu Ji-Won asked.

“Yes.”

“I’m Ryu Ji-Won, Ryu Young-Joon’s younger sister.”

“Yes, I heard from Ryu Young-Joon.”

“...”

Ryu Ji-Won was confused. She thought Young-Joon and Rosaline were close because they went to amusement parks together and he adopted her so suddenly, but maybe they were awkward, as she didn’t call him Dad. But she called him Ryu Young-Joon, not even Uncle or anything... Was this the American way?

‘Anyway, it doesn’t seem like she’s very comfortable with my brother, so I’ll take care of her between the two of them,’ Ryu Ji-Won thought to herself.

“Ji-Won, I’m going to go to the grocery store for a minute,” Young-Joon said as he walked out the front door.

Then, Rosaline suddenly jumped up from the sofa and shouted, “Ryu Young-Joon! Get me some T-Rex Legs!”

“...”

Young-Joon peeked out from behind Ryu Ji-Won, who was standing in front of the door.

“They only sell that in amusement parks, not grocery stores.”

“Then what do they sell at grocery stores?” Rosaline asked.

“Ice cream?” Young-Joon said.

“Then ice cream!”

“... Okay. Do you want something, Ji-Won?”

“No. I feel like I’m going to get sick if I eat now.”

“Alright.”

After Young-Joon left, Ryu Ji-Won calmed herself.

“Do you want to watch some TV?” she asked, turning the TV on.

‘What do kids her age like?’

Ryu Ji-Won flipped through the channels and stopped at a cartoon movie.

“Woah!”

Rosaline was astounded. On the screen, a yellow rat was giving a million-volt electric shock to someone. She sat up straight and began to focus on the screen so much that it seemed like she was going to fall into the TV at any moment.

Ryu Ji-Won chuckled as she watched Rosaline.

‘She’s still a kid.’

Rosaline reminded her of Ryu Sae-Yi. Now that she took a good look at her, Rosaline was so pretty and cute.

“Do you know this cartoon?” she asked.

The bacterial cultures were treated with five different concentrations of uranium, cesium, chromium, and technetium. As there were twenty experimental groups and three replicates for each, there was a statistical value for sixty data points.

“Oh my God! This is amazing!”

Song Ji-Hyun smiled brightly.

Only at the highest concentration of chromium did the amount of bacteria remain the same as the beginning, while it multiplied in all the other experimental groups. There were also tiny crystals at the bottom of the solution, which had formed as the radioactive substances reduced and combined with the metal ions added to the culture medium, transforming into a stable state.

“We’ll have to analyze it further, but I think it worked. The mystery of microorganisms in extreme environments is really... It’s beyond imagination.”

It was once believed that there were millions of microorganisms on Earth. But in 2016, Doctor Kenneth J. Locey and Doctor Jay T. Lennon used two statistical techniques to back-calculate and estimate that there were about one trillion microbial species on Earth. And about 99.999 percent of them were species that humans have yet to identify.

The same went for microorganism number eight.

“What should we name it?” Kim Soo-Chul asked.

“Microcellijenner?”

“You don’t want to put your name into it as the discoverer, Doctor Song?”

“That’s so embarrassing. Why would I do that? And let’s not get ahead of ourselves, since we need to check this a few more times.”

“You look the most excited right now,” Kim Soo-Chul said.

Song Ji-Hyun turned to Kim Soo-Chul, barely holding in her laughter.

“If it works well, see if we can bring this to Japan and use it in Fukushima,” she said.

*

“Do you want to go to elementary school next year?” Young-Joon asked Rosaline.

“Elementary school?”

“I thought you wanted to go, right? You’re registered as a nine-year-old, so you do have to go to school for compulsory education.”

“What will I learn there?”

Young-Joon thought for a moment. They would show her seven pictures of rabbits and ask how many rabbits there were in total.

“... It might be a little shocking that you have to learn that sort of thing. It’ll be too easy for you.”

“Really? I’m more worried that I won’t do well.”

“What do you mean?”

“I became much more human thanks to you, but I still don’t have a few emotions,” Rosaline said. “For example, I’ve never felt sadness, and I’ve never cried. To me, tears are just an aqueous solution containing proteins and salts secreted by the lacrimal glands to control the dryness of the eyes.”

“Hm...”

“I’m not sure I’ll mix in with people very well.”

“It’s okay. You’ll do well.”

Young-Joon lightly hugged Rosaline.

“Let’s get you some clothes.”

“Clothes?”

“This is all you have right now,” Young-Joon said as he lightly shook the hem of the t-shirt Rosaline was wearing.

“There are some clothes that Sae-Yi used to wear, right?”

“Let’s buy new ones, not Sae-Yi’s,” Young-Joon said.

“When do I go to school?”

“You don’t have a record of attending school, so we’ll have to enroll you. But it’s still September, so we still have six months left. You’ll start next March.”

“Hmph.”

Rosaline fiddled with her hands in boredom.

“Until then, you can play with me,” Young-Joon said, tapping Rosaline on the nose.

*

October was just around the corner. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has been very busy, as it was Nobel Prize season again.

But there was a problem.

“Four awards...”

Doctor Fredrik from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences fiddled with the list, staring at it in dismay. This amazing genius scientist had managed to dominate all four fields in which he was nominated.

Marie Curie, Linus Pauling, John Bardeen, and Frederick Sanger were all renowned scientists famous for having won two Nobel Prizes, but even they never won two in the same year.

But Young-Joon was set to receive four awards at the same time. This unprecedented situation created an unimaginable problem.

The Nobel Prizes were announced one after another and awarded on the same day. However, the Nobel Prize in Physiology, Chemistry and Physics were awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded by the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo.

Since Young-Joon couldn’t be in both places at once, Fredrik had to coordinate with the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee to find a solution.

However, because it was such a traditional and prestigious prize, it wasn’t easy to change the established rules.

Neither Sweden nor Norway was willing to compromise on the location or time.