The Cell Game



  As the lecture started, Paul Ernest sat near the back of the audience absently working on a crossword puzzle. The medical research conference was in the middle of its third day and he had to put down his puzzle and look at the schedule of events to even remember what this lecture was going to be about. “Advances in Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer” was what the title said. Ernest sighed inwardly. Cloning. He saw hardly any reason to hide what the work was by giving it a title that would fool no one that was attending this conference. Still, he understood that the government in general and the population in particular looked with suspicion and hostility on anything to do with cloning, so trying not to be obvious about it was probably a good move on the part of whoever was giving this talk.

  He sat back and looked slowly about the room. He had decided years before that the most important thing about these conferences was being able to prove one had attended them. It was more about being seen and who you were seen with. Only rarely was information put out that was truly important. Such information usually waited for a published paper that could be gone over carefully and was the key to getting more and better research grants. Besides, since they ran lectures concurrently, a person couldn't attend them all so the organizers offered video recordings of all the lectures for sale to any of the conference attendees. Ernest always got copies of all the lectures to go over later at his leisure. He went back to working on his puzzle.

  #

  Ernest got out of the shower and grabbed a towel from the towel bar. He thought longingly of the heat lamp dryer and heated towel bar from his hotel bathroom less than a week ago. All he needed was one good, solid biomedical research advance and he was sure he could afford to upgrade to a better apartment that had amenities like the hotel room had. As he got ready for work he put a video from one of the conference lectures in the video player on the television. It would take him perhaps another week to go through all the videos from the conference. Before he pressed the play button on the wall remote he glanced at the lecture title at the bottom of the screen: Advances in Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. Oh, the cloning lecture, he thought dismissively. His finger strayed to the skip button but, almost on a whim, he decided he might as well listen to it. His small, spartanly furnished studio apartment allowed him to be almost anywhere in it and still be able to see the television screen. Only in the bathroom it wasn't visible but he could still hear it. He quickly realized this lecture relied heavily on visual aids so he debated pausing the video until he finished in the bathroom. Eh, I doubt it'll be anything worthwhile, he thought as he went back to finish up in the bathroom.

  As he turned off and put away his shaver he heard the voice on the video say “... as you can see, this manufactured liver is an exact replica of the original, even down to the smallest cell and chemical structure.” He turned his head in the direction of the television, unsure if he heard the narrator correctly. He stuck his head out of the bathroom, watching the video for a couple minutes and then paused it and rewound it to a point five minutes earlier and hit play. He didn't do anything else that would distract his attention. He watched up until the narrator repeated the sentence about the liver at which point Ernest paused the video and walked closer to the television to look at the two livers that were shown. He ran his finger over different aspects of the picture, his mind racing with implications and inspirations.

  He glanced at the clock on the wall and knew he would be late for work even if he left immediately. I guess this is one of the good things about being the lab supervisor, he thought to himself as he picked up his phone and dialed the number for the MIT labs he worked at. “Clare? It's Dr. Ernest. I'm running a bit late so I won't be in until 9 or 9:30. Are there any messages for me? No? Okay, I'll be there by 9:30, thanks.” He hung up and turned back towards the television and proceeded to make a copy of the lecture while he finished getting ready for work.

  As Ernest rode the train to work he watched the lecture on cloning on his laptop computer from the beginning. He planned on watching the video again that evening at home so he could take notes. Right now he was just watching it to get an overall idea of what it was about. So far, what he had seen had the seeds of an idea germinating in his head.

  #

  Ernest set his down bag down at his small kitchen table and sighed heavily. He started some water boiling for tea and made himself a sandwich with leftovers from the weekend. He glanced at his bag that contained some work he brought home to finish. But he knew he wouldn't even look at it tonight. His mind was occupied by the cloning video. Indeed, the day at work was exhausting because, in between juggling four research projects, his mind kept wandering back to the cloning lecture. The more he thought about it the more intrigued he was becoming.

  After watching the video a second time that day, and taking copious notes the whole time, Ernest sat back in his chair and allowed his mind to wander freely. It often helped him in thinking about a problem to not actually think about the problem. And right now the problem he was trying not to think about was how could cloning an organ that was an exact replica of its original be put to use for him. He thought of the organs in a body that failed due to advancing age; heart, liver, lungs... all of them could be replaced, though he would need to harvest cells before any injury or illness affected the organ in question. But... what about the brain?

  The brain, arguably the most important organ of the body, failed due to aging as well. But if it could be cloned to retain all of its cellular and chemical structure would it retain things like memories and skills and... personality? His mind started racing. He wasn't thinking now of the hurdles to be jumped but the end of the race itself. A second chance at life from the beginning but starting out with everything the previous life had learned. A chance to continue research projects that could span two or more lifetimes. As it had stood for so long, a man who came up with an idea didn’t always see how far the idea could be developed. He would die and someone else, possibly with that persons sense of vision but more likely without it, would take up the idea and try to go farther with it. He briefly wondered what someone like Einstein could have accomplished if he had another 60 years to continue the work he had done. That train of thought started running away and he had to force himself to derail it, so he could see if it was even a faint possibility.

  He tore off a fresh sheet of paper and started jotting down an outline to organize his thoughts. First he decided he would need to get a hold of the research in order to determine if it was even feasible to clone a brain. He put down the pen as he realized every other step after that depended on if the research suggested it was possible. So he went to his computer and logged onto his university account to write an email to the lecturer asking for a copy of his research. He figured the university's email address would have a better chance of his getting a reply rather than using his personal email.

  #

  It had been a month and a half until his request for the cloning research was answered. The reply came in the form of a small box containing a thumb drive and an attached note thanking him for his interest and offering any help in understanding the material that was included. Ernest harumphed at the suggestion that he might be unable to comprehend any of the research. He put the thumb drive in his bag so he wouldn't forget it when he went home. That last hour at work was as hard for him as the day when he first listened to the lecture.

  When he got home he booted up his computer before he even hung up his jacket. He debated what he would cook and then decided he would splurge and have a pizza delivered. Ordering out was someth
ing he rarely could afford but he wanted as much time as possible to go over the material on the thumb drive so he would make the financial sacrifice.

  After calling in his order he changed his clothes since he had a habit of being a messy when he was trying to eat and read at the same time. He grabbed a pad of paper and pen and started reading the contents of the thumb drive without merely skimming any of the material in case something important was hidden among the information he already knew.

  After reading a dozen pages the door buzzer sounded and he went and got his pizza from the delivery girl. After placing the box on the small, narrow counter top he took two large pieces of pizza and a napkin and went back to submerging himself in his reading.

  It was five hours and half the pizza later before Ernest decided to call it a night. He figured he still had a few days worth of reading before he finished the entire study. But even now, he was starting to think the idea of cloning a functioning brain was possible. Well, possible except that it would be outrageously expensive, not to mention illegal. Over the years the religious fanatics