read about science in english – Page 2

See the World (An Easy English Story): Part 7

Neil uses the lenses for two months, and he feels like a pro. The HIV of Neil’s first patient was cured in just five days. Because the surgery was so successful, Dr. Chen asked Neil to do twenty more surgeries. All twenty patients got better quickly.

Neil feels excited to look at the patients’ new healthy cells. Before the surgeries, their bodies look like Neil’s bedroom wall when Leila drew on it with crayons two years ago. After Neil spent an hour cleaning the wall with mayonnaise it was a smooth light blue again. Genome editing with the lenses is like mayonnaise for their too-colorful cells.

The diseases all look different with the lenses, and all of them are uncomfortably bright. Ebola is Neil’s least favorite. It looks like thousands of neon blue worms. These little worms seem to eat through the healthy cells, squirming in and out of them.

On the morning of Neil’s twenty-first surgery, Dr. Chen asks Neil to meet with her in her office to talk about the surgery. Neil already started getting ready for the surgery, so he is wearing the lenses.

Neil opens Dr. Chen’s office door and immediately feels sick. Bright green circles with red spikes float in the air around Dr. Chen. As she says, “Good morning,” the spikes fly towards Neil. He jumps to the left, but some of the green and red still hit his face. Neil wipes his face with his sleeve, and then he remembers: This is what a cold looks like.

“I see you’re wearing the lenses,” Dr. Chen says. She laughs at Neil’s reaction.

Neil tries to laugh, too. “I forgot that I put them in.”

Dr. Chen laughs louder and begins to cough. More frog-green circles fly towards Neil, and he holds his breath.

Part 8>

See the World: Part 5

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.

Part 6>