It was nearly evening when I reached Senate Hall where the specimen was to be kept for display. The place was crowded with so many people such that it looked as if there was a carnival going on. The excitement was understandable. The discovery was amazing, almost next to impossible.
Before this, people had discovered fossils of new dinosaurs, a few Jurassic age insects, and stuff like that. But a new species that resembled Homo sapiens, preserved in an amber fossil? Too much to resist. The media had given full coverage of the discovery, with every news channel and newspaper in the world making it their headline. It was even nicknamed ‘The Lilliput’ by The New York Times. Being a biologist myself, it was quite hard to believe that such a species should exist. But the news was released only after a dozen genetic tests had been conducted by the best genetic engineers in the world. It was indeed a new species. Quite astounding.
After moving past the huge crowd at the entrance, I entered into the heavily guarded hall, thanks to the visitors pass given to me by my good friend Roberts, who was one of the engineers who did the DNA tests. I learnt from him the full details of the genetic makeup of the organism. It closely resembled the human genome, with about 99.9% similarity, he had said. I also learnt that it was planned to name the new species Homo lilliputiens. And it was a male. As I entered the hall, the first thing I noticed was the heavy air-conditioning that was in place, because I started to shiver in the cold. The hall was filled with scientists from different parts of the world discussing about the latest sensation to hit science.
I searched for Roberts, and after a brief search, I found him talking with a beautiful young female scientist. As soon as I went near him, he saw me and excused himself from her and came towards me with a face with worry written all over it. Before I could ask him what was wrong he himself said, “The specimen is alive.”
I couldn’t believe what he said. It was impossible. An organism preserved inside an amber fossil, alive? But before I could voice my protests to him, he caught my arm and took me inside a heavily guarded room at the back of the hall with a powerful laminar hood at the entry to remove the dust and microbial particles from the visitors' body. The door led to a room that was dimly lit, with a couple of armed security men standing guard. In the centre of the room was a glass hood with the specimen inside it. The room was more heavily air-conditioned than the hall.
I heard Roberts say, “See for yourself”. And as I approached the hood, I could make out a miniature organism inside the amber fossil. When I finally reached the hood, I saw it. It was indeed a miniature human. The face was distinct, with eyes, nose, ears and mouth clearly visible. It also had the limbs of a human. But it wasn’t moving. It was as still as if it were dead. A couple of ultra-thin wires were connected to its limbs. The wires led to an ECG which was showing read-outs. It was indeed alive!!
“How is it still alive??” I asked
“That’s a good question. The problem now is we don’t know if the organism is safe enough to humans. Actually we tried killing it as soon as we knew it was alive. We tried all the methods that will instantly kill a man - poison, high voltage, and all other stuff. But it is still alive. That means it is almost immortal.”
“What do we do now? What have you guys decided to do?” I wanted to know.
“We plan to postpone its display to the media and the scientists by another month. And we transfer this to a high security storage area and study it more closely. We don’t want the world to know that it is still alive.” He said.
I just couldn’t speak. The enormity of the situation was astounding. I just stood there watching the Lilliput. It was clearly a man in miniature. As I stood watching it, suddenly many things happened at once. It started wriggling, as if it wanted to break free from the amber fossil. Suddenly the amber cracked and the organism fell out. Then, it started shivering and shaking and then everything stopped and it became still.
Sunday, July 12 2009
It was almost noon when the report came. Roberts studied it for a moment, smiled and handed over the report to me for me to read it. I wondered what was amusing in it as I studied the report.
“After the autopsy, it is clear that the organism died of oxygen poisoning. This can be possible because the atmosphere in which it lived was almost devoid of oxygen and was predominantly carbon dioxide. So, as soon as it got exposed to the high oxygen concentration environment, its respiratory system failed and it died instantly.”
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