Spark

"welcome!"

In the office of the Forestry Bureau, Wang Wang held Lin Guorui's hand with enthusiasm and said repeatedly.

He looked at the face of his old friend whom he hadn't seen for more than two years, and then he was surprised to find that instead of being destroyed by the wind and sand in the northwest, he looked more energetic and even more rosy.

what happened? Did he go to the Gobi Desert to retire?

And Lin Guorui looked at Wang Wang with the same puzzled look - this boy hadn't seen him for a long time, but he had aged so much.

"What's wrong with you? Why do you look so haggard? Isn't the Mu Us project in the final stage? Are you still so busy?"

Lin Guorui asked.

"There's nothing I can do about it. Taking care of new people will make me even busier than when I'm doing serious work."

"There are only a few demonstration projects across the country, and progress on other projects is relatively slow. We are the only one here that can serve as an education base, so people are flocking to our place."

"Let's go to my office to chat. The welcome ceremony ends here."

Wang Wang sighed and pulled Lin Guorui towards the office. After entering the room and closing the door, he continued:

"Stop trying to seduce me. What are you doing here this time?"

"It can't really be a simple communication - I don't see how this thing is easy to communicate with."

"Tell me, what's the benefit? You came here just because you smelled it?"

There was teasing in his tone of voice, which might even sound harsh to a stranger.

However, the two of them are colleagues who have known each other for many years, and they are friends who have gone through difficult times together. No matter how unpleasant the words are, of course they will not care.

Lin Guorui waved his hand and replied:

"What good can you guys do here? I'm really here to communicate this time, and I want to ask for someone by the way."

"You want someone? Who do you want?"

Wang Wang was a little surprised. According to his understanding, Lin Guorui was only responsible for the environmental protection work of a certain base. At the time, it seemed like he had "lowered himself" to become a gardener. Are they the only ones who still want people?

No way, you really got it right, are you going to start developing Taklimakan on a large scale?

He stared at Lin Guorui blankly, waiting for his answer.

And the latter did not disappoint him, and bluntly said the answer he wanted to hear:

"I want whoever there is, I want them all."

"You want them all!?"

Wang Wang stood up suddenly and asked excitedly:

"Really want to do it?"

"Has it come to this point? Has it been approved by the higher authorities? Has the budget been approved?"

"Why should I look for you if it's not approved?"

Lin Guorui sat down on the sofa triumphantly, picked up the mineral water on the table, opened it, and drank half the bottle in one gulp.

"You guys are turning on the heating too much."

"Don't talk nonsense to me!"

Wang Wang quickly interrupted him and continued to ask:

"So how much budget has been approved? Don't tell me it's just a small deal. If it's less than 100 million, you don't have to worry about it. It's barely enough to support a few interns!"

"One hundred million?"

Lin Guorui shook his head with disdain, and then said:

"Your vision is too narrow. If you really have such a small amount of money, can I go all the way to ask for him in person?"

"How much is that? Can you please stop being so pretentious?"

The more anxious Wang Wang became, the more Lin Guorui wanted to tease him, but in the end, he couldn't bear it and said the result directly:

"10 billion is just the first phase of the project."

After the words fell, Wang Wang froze on the spot.

"10 billion?? How much area??"

"The area is not the point. In fact, the area is not that big."

"The experimental base for the first phase of the project is only planned to be about 2,000 square kilometers, of which 400 square kilometers is the core test area."

"The area may expand in the future, but it will not exceed 5,000 square kilometers."

".seriously?"

"seriously."

Wang Wang took a long breath and sat down against Lin Guorui.

For a moment, it was difficult for him to digest the information he had just received.

The area is only one-eighth of the Mu Us Desert, but the cost is one-third.

In other words, the unit cost is nearly three times that of Mu Us.

Moreover, such costs also take into account the development of desert control technology and the continuous reduction of costs in recent years. If strictly compared, the cost of this experimental base should be more than 10 times the average cost of the Mu Us Desert.

Big money, big investment.

Wang Wang quickly asked:

"So what are you going to do specifically? It won't be traditional technology, right? Will it be a new technology?"

"Well, it's mainly a technical experiment."

When talking about specific business issues, Lin Guorui also became serious.

He sat up straight and explained:

"This is actually a systematic technical experiment, including seedlings, soil, and water sources."

"You are just the first step here. I will go to other places to recruit troops in the future."

"I can only say that this time the authorities are serious about it. As soon as the United States surrendered, we immediately entered a stage where we had too much money and no place to spend it. It is really time to embark on such a historic project."

"really."

Wang Wang nodded in agreement, and then asked:

"Is there any inside information you can disclose? For example, what technology will be used? What direction will it take?"

"Tell me about it. If it's suitable, I'll go too."

"You were going to go, do you think you can still stay comfortably in Yulin? Just go and eat sand with me."

"Technically, there is a special department working on the seedlings. We are not involved, so I don't know much about it."

"For the soil, a liquid soil infiltration solution will be used to achieve soil solidification."

“As for the water source, that’s huge.”

"In addition to large-scale canals and artificial rivers to divert water, this time, the authorities also made a new plan."

"Proposal for a large-scale condensation system to limit desert evaporation."

Hearing this, Wang Wang took a breath subconsciously.

"It's all a big cost. Do we want to replicate the Middle East experience?"

In fact, the Middle East, especially Dubai, has considerable experience in managing deserts. Of course, what is most famous among them is not their technology, but their investment regardless of cost.

Using seawater desalination technology to provide water for irrigation, if they hadn't actually done it, just talking about it would be incredible.

But of course, such technologies are actually only applied within a very small range, because their costs are actually prohibitive.

Now, Huaxia has actually proposed a plan to use artificial condensation equipment to reduce evaporation, and it plans to apply it on a large scale.

This is no longer incredible and indescribable.

"So, when does the project start? When do we go?"

Wang Wang asked.

Lin Guorui replied without hesitation:

"The sooner the better!"

At the same time, in Chengdu, inside the conference room.

While Wang Wang was receiving Lin Guorui, who rushed to the Yulin Forestry Bureau, Chen Nian had just concluded a discussion with experts from agricultural and forestry research institutions across the country.

At this meeting, they discussed many topics related to improved plant varieties for desertification control, which brought great inspiration to Chen Nian.

Generally speaking, there are only a few types of plants that China often uses in response to land desertification, the most representative of which are Pinus sylvestris, Elaeagnus angustifolia, Splendens splendens, and Caragana.

These four plants can be said to have their own advantages and disadvantages, and they can play different roles.

For example, Pinus sylvestris is extremely adaptable, resistant to drought, salt and alkali, and grows rapidly. It is especially suitable for use in saline-alkali land. However, during the growth process, it will cause soil acidification and cause New soil problems.

Due to its well-developed root system, Elaeagnus angustifolia has obvious advantages in sand fixation, but it severely deprives the soil of nutrients, which may lead to insufficient soil nutrients and affect subsequent large-scale greening.

Splendens splendens and caragana also have their own advantages and disadvantages. Generally speaking, no plant can perfectly meet all requirements, and no plant can truly achieve the goal of "solving the problem at once".

Therefore, for Chen Nian, his future work direction is obvious.

That is, using gene editing technology to modify plant genes to enhance a certain aspect of its characteristics while minimizing its negative effects.

This is not an easy task to complete. Not to mention the content of whole-genome association analysis, the gene editing technology itself is also quite difficult.

In fact, at this time, the development of gene editing technology around the world is still in a relatively early stage. There are three main difficulties.

The first is the issue of accuracy in gene editing.

Although the CRISPR/Cas9 that has been born has improved the convenience of operation, off-target effects still exist. Once there is a deviation, it may cause damage to other non-target genes and produce results that are far from the target, resulting in a high editing success rate. amplitude decreased.

Secondly, how to improve gene editing efficiency is also a major issue.

The implementation of gene editing technology requires the editing tools to be delivered into cells through appropriate delivery methods, and then further into the cell nucleus. Current delivery methods are mostly operated with the help of viral vectors or physical methods, but viral vectors may cause rejection reactions in organisms. Physical methods may cause damage to cells.

Finally, there is the issue of the stability of gene editing.

Whether it is plants or animals, cells have DNA repair mechanisms. This mechanism may be triggered during the editing process, leading to random and unexpected mutations, which will affect the entire biological system and cause instability after gene editing. sex.

In addition to these aspects, other technical difficulties include multi-gene parallel editing, long-segment DNA insertion, etc. that are not yet achievable. It can be said that each level is more difficult and complex than the last.

To solve all these problems, Chen Nian needs not only new equipment and technology, but also needs to update existing theories.

——

This is obviously not something he should do, but in order to pursue efficiency, he has to participate.

Thinking of this, Chen Nian sighed softly and closed the information in his hand.

When he got up and walked out of the office, he met Wang Jiancheng who had been waiting there.

The latter looked extremely excited, and immediately said after seeing Chen Nian:

"Senior, there is progress!"

"Is there any progress? Is there any progress on anything?"

"Program, our program! I made the first trial version!"

"There is only a small scene now, but from my personal experience, this thing can fully reflect the operation of the subsequent main program."

"Come on, I brought the computer. Do you want to give it a try?"

Chen Nian was stunned for a moment.

So fast?

You know, it has only been a month since he and Wang Jiancheng completed their last discussion.

In such a short period of time, he actually made the so-called "trial version"?

The efficiency is really not low.

Chen Nian immediately became interested. Looking at the screenless computer in Wang Jiancheng's hand, he said:

"Where should we go? Just in the conference room?"

"Just go to the conference room!"

Wang Jiancheng couldn't wait to push the door open for Chen Nian, connected the computer to the power supply, and said while running the program:

"This program is now connected to an integrated server, and its computing power is basically OK. However, there are still many problems in complex decision-making, and stupid mistakes will occasionally pop up."

"However, if it is only used as a stand-alone trial version, I think it is still fun enough."

“The mode of operation is text-only—not text options, but text input.”

"You can directly enter the choice you want to make, and the language model will analyze your choice, compare it with the keywords stored in the database, and then output the results of your choice."

"The scene of this trial version is set at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. The player plays Zhu Yuanzhang, and the scene starts with destroying the temple and begging for food."

"Of course, the specific historical background and timeline settings are incomplete. I have made adjustments to some parts in order to reduce the program load, but"

"Anyway, give it a try!"

When Chen Nian reached the computer, all he saw was an empty interface with only a simple text.

"You're in a ruined temple. You're cold and hungry."

The poorness of this language expression makes it clear at a glance that this language model was trained by Wang Jiancheng

"What should I do now?"

Chen Nian asked subconsciously.

"Just enter it in the dialog box! You can do whatever you want!"

Chen Nian hesitated for a moment, then typed a line of words in the input box:

"Go dig grass roots outside the city and eat them."

Just seconds later, the program reacted to his strategy.

"After years of famine, the grass outside the city has long been eaten up. You spent too much energy searching for grass roots, and eventually starved to death in the wilderness."

"What the hell?"

Chen Nian scratched his head, turned to Wang Jiancheng and asked:

"Is it that difficult?"

Wang Jiancheng shook his head and replied:

"It's not that the problem is difficult, it's that your description is not accurate enough. The model will determine that you have not planned carefully and will directly determine the worst result for you - this is also a mechanism."

"But if you enter the specifics of where to go, what grass to find, and how to eat, you will get completely different results."

"very nice!"

Chen Nian couldn't help but nodded, while Wang Jiancheng said proudly:

"Right? This thing works better than I imagined."

“The computing power is still not enough now. When the computing power really increases, I don’t know how far it can go.”

"Moreover, now I have even built the interactive function. If two terminals are connected at the same time, you can even choose to grab his food."

The interaction between real people was what Chen Nian valued most when he proposed the idea of ​​"virtual society".

And now, it has been achieved.

It seems that the day when it evolves to perfection is not far away.