World without Cats by Bonham Richards

Author:Bonham Richards [Richards, Bonham]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781475926033
Publisher: Author Solutions Inc.
Published: 2012-06-18T16:00:00+00:00

Noah sat, slouched at his desk, flipping paper clips with a ballpoint pen. Gary paced back and forth. Neither spoke. So absorbed were they with their failure they barely noticed when Vera appeared. “Did you guys hear what’s going on in the San Joaquin Valley?”

“What?” questioned Noah and Gary simultaneously.

“Mice are invading the town of Taft.”

“Where’s Taft?” Noah asked.

“It’s in the San Joaquin Valley,” replied Gary. “I have a cousin who lives in Bakersfield who’s mentioned it.”

Vera nodded. “That’s right. There’s a complete report on the Bakersfield newspaper’s website. She ran her hands through her hair. “I recall reading about a hantavirus epidemic in the early 1990s among Navajos living in the four corners area of the Southwest.”

Noah shrugged. “So?”

“Well, the virus had been endemic in deer mice. Right before the human epidemic, there was a population explosion of deer mice in the area.”

“Oh, great. Can you think of anything more pessimistic to bring up? By the way, we’re giving up on the lion experiments.”

“Yes, I thought so. Actually, I didn’t come up here just to mention the mice. I had a thought about the lion cells. Maybe the virus is unable to infect adult lymphocytes, but might be able to infect immature, undifferentiated cells, say, those from a lion cub.”

Noah raised his eyebrows. “Why?”

“Well, I’m not sure,” replied Vera, “but lymph cells change a lot as an animal matures. In young animals, the thymus gland, where the T-lymphocytes develop, is large and active, but it shrinks as the animal grows up. I was thinking that we could go back to Santa Barbara and take thymus samples from the cubs. We have nothing to lose.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.