See the World (An Easy English Story): Part 5
Neil looks in the mirror and takes out the lenses. The lenses are smooth and light just like regular contact lenses, but if Neil looks closely he can see thin wires in the lenses. They look like a spider web. With the wires, Neil’s eyes can see cells and diseases. A year ago, a man called Alvin Muller found a special part of the brain. Scientists now call it Muller’s Area. Animals like dogs and bees use Muller’s Area to “smell” diseases. Humans have Muller’s Area in their brains too, but it is weaker than in animals’ brains. Alvin Muller created the lenses to send messages to Muller’s Area. Animals’ noses send messages to the brain when they “smell” disease. With the lenses, humans’ eyes can send messages to the brain when they “see” disease.
Before the lens, scientists from Hunan used genome editing. They helped many people with diseases in their DNA. Neil believes that genome editing is like fixing a car. When a person fixes a car, he does not destroy the car. Instead, he replaces the broken parts of it. For example, if the engine does not work, he takes out the engine and puts in a new one. In the same way, with genome editing, doctors can take out the diseased DNA and put in healthy DNA.
The scientists in Hunan were 99% successful. In every patient, genome editing destroyed most of the disease. But the scientists couldn’t find all of the disease inside the patients’ bodies. About 1% of the disease stayed in the body, and after a few months, the diseases became bad again. That’s why Dr. Alvin Muller created the lens. The lens helped doctors find 100% of every disease.
In a year, the lens was used for fourteen surgeries in different countries. All surgeries succeeded. Today’s surgery was the fifteenth, and it was Neil’s first surgery with the lens.
Fun for Fluency! 