“See the World” Part 1: Advanced
A kaleidoscope. Swirling and blending neons, a little pink on the ridges, streams of green and blue moving toward the veined center. Even when Neil closed his eyes, he could still visualize the patterns pulsating on the back of his eyelids.
The cells looked like bees swarming so densely that the hive was obscured. At the same time, each bee was visible, up to each prickly hair.
Even though Neil had practiced with DNA samples and diseased animals multiple times, the “lenses” still disturbed him–especially now that there was an actual person in front of him. He was one of the first doctors to test them on a human and the first so far to look directly at HIV. The patterns were so vivid, so detectable, that Neil was sure genome editing would work. He just needed to see the disease and input his observations into the computer, which would take over for him.
Still, that left a lot of room for human error. Neil chewed on his bottom lip and studied the disease again.
On the operating table, the patient lay under a paper sheet that covered all but her head. The sheet, as well as her skin, were all a translucent haze with the lenses. But the HIV was vibrant. Neil noted that it infected her whole body, ebbing and flowing with the bloody currents in her veins. More infected cells concentrated in her pelvic area, patches of blue and pink that speckled her skin. It was actually under her skin, Neil knew, but it seemed to float just above the surface.
Fun for Fluency! 