Post # 27 Research

Posted on Fri Jun 25th, 2021 @ 4:41pm by

Mission: Mission Guardian Shield
Location: Biology Lab
Timeline: Current

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Lieutenant Heather McTavish had just finished breakfast and was off to the Biology Lab. James was in another Briefing and Lieutenant Herculoid was in another Lab checking on some things for James.

Since all of the work had been completed from Savai, Heather had some research that she wanted to conduct. There were some viable specimens left over and she wanted to delve into a theory that she had.

Even though Heather wasn't a Botanist per se, she still had a pretty good working knowledge of plants, which she accredited to having her PhD in Biology.

Heather noticed earlier, when she was going over the plants initially, that this particular plant had a heavy concentration of chlorophyll. She thought if a sample could be taken and then injected into another plant then perhaps the new plant could thrive in a more hostile environment. This could be huge for areas where food plants had problems growing.

She extracted some of the super chlorophyll, as she called it, and placed a small amount on a slide then placed it under a microscope. Heather was amazed at the composition as well as the deep green color. Upon further investigation she noticed that the number of cells in the sample were almost double of that of normal samples. Also the cells were oblong instead of round and the cell walls appeared to be thicker than normal; these factors would account for the deep, rich green color.

Heather went to a glass lighted cabinet and grabbed five seedlings of squash plants which were growing for her research.

The first plant would not have anything added which would be her control specimen. The other four would have different amounts of the 'super chlorophyll' injected in four different amounts.

Plant number one had 1 cc of the chlorophyll injected, the second 2 cc's, the third 3 cc's, and the fourth 4 cc's. Now she would have to wait to see what happens. She would busy herself for awhile with other work keeping an eye on her test plants.

After a couple of ours Heather noticed that the plant that had received the 4 cc's had already withered and died; so that was too much for the plant to handle. Plant number three, with the 3 cc's, had it's leaves starting to turn yellow and would probably die soon. The second plant, with 2 cc's, had almost doubled in size already. Plant number one showed no signs of being any different than the control plant.

Heather put the three, still living plants, back into the cabinet with the second plant being placed on the bottom shelf by itself.

When Heather's shift was almost over she went to check her specimens. As she had thought, plant number three, had finally withered and died which she threw out. Plant number two was growing really well and had started to 'run' as squash plants do.

Being very happy with the results, Heather would have to show Tara and explain the benefits what this 'super chlorophyll' could have for areas with harsh conditions which would make growing food difficult.

The day had gone by quickly and Heather was tired after spending hours looking through a microscope. Now it was time to go home, relax, and wait for James to arrive back home for dinner.

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